[fungirl]

Originally Posted by Just a CRNA

You're not the only one...and the end is in sight. Hang in there...the exhilaration of being done, being an advanced practice provider, and enjoying the lifestyle that comes as a reward for all your hard work cannot be put into words. You are 29, but the decisions you make now and the success you create now will affect FunGirl at age 39, 49, 59, and so on. You can do it. As a wise old lab instructor once said, "Every now and then you need to take a step back and congratulate yourself for making the decision to come into the anesthesia profession. You made a great chioce." At least, I think that's what he said.

Thanks everyone for the responses, it makes me feel better to know that I am not the only one that wants to retire my srna/rrna badge!!! I'll just keep going forward, and hope that something gets better, but at least in the meantime, some time will have elapsed and I will be closer to graduation.....Thanks again for the replies, and good luck to all of you suffering in the clinical phase!!!

[ICUDOUCME?]

I am in clinical full time w/ online classwork and exams throughout. The hardest part for me is being away from home (distant clinical site). If I could be home most nights of the week and have that interaction, I would be fine. I can handle most things school-related and I am even handling the being away from home part...no meds yet. But it is the hardest thing I've ever done and I am looking forward to the time when I am working full time and coming home every night.

If you have made it to the clinical portion, you have already accomplished so much. It would be a shame to quit now, when you have the rest of your life to reap the benefits.

[tinatinabobina]

I'm not a SRNA, but I hope to help add some encouragement. What I would give to be in your position right now! Please hang in there and tell yourself each day that you just need to get through "today". Soon enough it will all be over. I am a recent ADN graduate, and I had to tell myself that all the time... especially when I was up all night revising my care plans or had a rough day at clinical. I know nursing school and CRNA school can't be compared, but it's the only personal perspective I can give at the moment! Best wishes to all of you soon-to-be CRNAs! I can't wait for the day that I am venting about my own CRNA school issues.

[japaho41]

I think that everyone has those days, weeks or months when you say what the hell was I thinking when I decided this was going to be my career path. No matter how many people tell you that it's going to really suck at times you can never appreciate that until you experience it for yourself. No one ever said this was going to be easy by an stretch. You just have to expect that there will be days that you want to crawl beneath the OR table to get away from the crap that is rolling down the hill from your CRNA that day. Take cover because if it has not happened to you yet it probably will and if it doesn't consider yourself lucky. Sure everyone has felt like quitting but take a look over shoulder and look at all the hurdles and hoops that you had to go through just to get to this point. That is enough of a driving force for me that keeps me in the game.

[Kenelty]

Wow, how to reply?

First of all, you are not the only one. Trust me!

I graduate this year and will soon have this nightmare end. There truly has not been a day in the last year and a half that I have not regretted my decision to attend CRNA school. It has been, without a doubt, the most miserable time in my life.

There was a point that I reached about a year ago when I decided to quit, and I had never quit anything in my life...that is how miserable it has been. I was willing to quit and eat $60,000 worth of loans rather than continue in a profession that evidently encouraged the treatment that I was receiving. Had it not been for a call from a close friend and CRNA the day before I turned in my resignation letter, I would have been gone. Our instructors and the vast majority of clinical preceptors are the most miserable and evil bunch of individuals I have ever encountered in my life. How our college and the Council on Accreditation allows these rotten people to continue what they do is beyond me.

I have been verbally and physically insulted and assaulted while in clinical. I have been called stupid in front of peers and patients. I have had my appearance insulted. I have been accused of substance abuse while in clinical and have been subjected to random testing for same (and passed BTW, each and every time). And the list goes on and on.

I was asked just today at lunch by a junior student if I would do it again, and of course my answer was an unequivocal "No way in Hell!".

I have, however, never met a CRNA who has told me that the sacrifices they made were not worth it in the end. I am having a hard time seeing that at this point, but I pray everyday that they are right.

I will say this though: No matter how good the job is or how much it pays, there is no excuse whatsoever for the horrible treatment many SRNAs receive, and something needs to be done by the Council of Accreditation or the AANA to remedy this situtation.

Sorry to be a bummer, I'm just sick and tired of this crap.