Wanting to become a CRNA

but is it wrong to want to become a CRNA because you want to be considered the "best". In my opinion, anesthesia is the most challenging work you can do, and I personally feel only the best are selected for it. The money's a definite plus, but for me it's the respect and being able to say I've made it, I am apart of an elite group of people. Does my reasons for wanting to become a CRNA sound superficial?

Originally posted by MICU RN
Besides the challenge, just make sure you like the actual job duties. Personally, I am getting a little tired of nurses stating that you must be so caring to be a real nurse. Maybe it is just me, but I read plenty of comments on these nursing boards( not so much on this crna forum) where they constantly emphasize how important it is to be so caring. I have been a RN for 5 years in different critical care areas and while most of the nurses I have worked with are good people, very few will go aroung constanly talking about how important it is to be so caring and many would do something else if they could find a better career. Sure caring is important, but I don't feel that it is the be all end all to being a good nurse. First, I don't believe most nurses I work with including myself care about the patients anymore than the the doctor, RT, PT or any other health care provider. We are all suppose to be professionals and in doing so it is implied that we will put the patients best interest at heart. I think nurses get this skewed belief, while in nursing school, that we are some how the ultimate patient advocate and that we care more than anyone else. ANd if you don't feel that nursing is a vocation you are not a real nurse. Well, I feel that this thinking is part of the reason nurses get dumped on from all sides. The hospitals and doctors are used to the nurses doing whatever it will take to get the job done, even when it means unsafe patient/nurse ratios are low compensation. Now, I know I have gotten of on a tangent, but I feel it ties in with some of the comments concerning Shirely Tex, stating that one of the main reason she/he was interested in being a crna was the academic and clinical challenge. Just because the caring aspect was not expressed, does not mean she/he will not be an excellent crna and provide good anesthesia care. If that comment would have been posted on another professinal type forum for other challenging careers, I doubt if anyone would question their motives just because they didn't mention that "oh by the way I also care so much for the client or patient and promise to be the ultimate patient/ client advocate". Maybe it is just me but I don't see this type of ultruistic caring going at the bedside. Rather, I do see plenty of very hard working nurses, doctors, ect at the bedside who usually act very professional an deliver good health care to those who need it. By the way these comments are not directed at any particular comment, but rather many that I have reads over the last couple of years concerning how we as nurses care so much.