Too old for Army CRNA?

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I am currently 35 years old and am a public school teacher by profession. While I love teaching, I have decided that I want to switch fields. The ARMY CRNA program is very attractive to me. If I go this route, I could possibly fulfill a few things in my professional life that I never thought I would, including a six-figure salary, becoming a doctor, and being an active-duty service member. Now, I just need to take stats (anyone know an easy online math stats program?) and microbiology and I can apply for an accelerated BSB program before finding an ICU to work in for a year. Does anyone around my age have any experience with the CRNA path? I look forward to any information that anyone with experience may have to offer me. Thank you very much!

Vandon

Note: I believe that you can apply for the Army program up until you are 42 so I think I am good with time.

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The Army CRNA program is one of the best in the nation and for that reason is very competitive. While your plan is pretty solid you have to take in a couple of factors:

1. You can get into a BSN program right away (accelerated are usually rather difficult o hop into)

2. You can work ICU straight away without any med-surg time. While it is possible to go to the ICU as a brand new nurse it is not the norm.

3. The other applicants for the CRNA program will have lots of prior service military RNs with many years of ICU, ER and combat experience

4. Your chance of accessing active duty as a brand new nurse right now is next to 0. Minimum years recruiters are looking at right now is 2. That is just for an RN let alone for the CRNA program

5. Finally your age will be a hurdle because there are 20 somethings with more RN experience who are gunning to do the same thing. Trust me I did ROTC and almost every cadet I was with wanted to do advanced practice nursing which included CRNA a lot of the time

Keep pushing forward and good luck

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

If you haven't checked out the USAGPAN site, it's here: https://www.sites.google.com/site/armynurseanesthesia/

As Dranger mentioned, the Army is very competitive to begin with, and USAGPAN even more so. You should ensure that your BSN program has appropriate accreditation, and your grades will also be a factor -- when I commissioned, GPA was something the selection board considered. Bear in mind that in addition to applying for USAGPAN, you also must apply for commissioning to the Army Nurse Corps, and they are currently looking for at least two years of experience. USAGPAN only specifies that you must have at least one year of critical care, but I think you're going to need two years of nursing experience to be considered. I think you'd have time to get all that in before you turn 42, though. Good luck!! :)

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

Get your BSN and at least one year of critical care experience along with the other prerequisites then apply to the Army direct accession CRNA program if that is your goal. There will be younger and probably older applicants in your class if you get in. The Army program has historically had a hard time filling all their NA school slots, but this changes year to year.

Have you shadowed a CRNA yet to see if you would even like the job? By the way for the first 8 years (school and payback after NA school) you will only be making a little more than every other nurse in the Army that isn't getting a bonus.

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I think it's also important to clarify that a CRNA requires a Masters degree, which won't make you a 'doctor'. Of course, if a doctor title is of interest, you could continue on and get a doctorate in nursing... Also... I recommend a quick google search of officer pay...Last I recall, it's a looong road to 6 figures in the military! :-)

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

AANA has already mandated that nurse anesthetists graduating in 2025 or later will have to have their doctorates. The military nurse anesthesia schools have already switched to DNP programs. Since a being a "Doctor" is just an academic degree then yes you would be a doctor after you graduated. You would not be a physician or have any more clinical privileges than any other non-doctoral prepared CRNA though.

Military pay is lot more than the base pay that you see when doing a google search. The average military officer pay is around 120K/yr. I am right around the average, but that also has a lot to do with where you are stationed.

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I agree, wtbcrna... Pay works out in the long run. Takes some time to get there, though and depending where you're located, civilians may advance in pay a bit quicker than military counterparts, based on my comparisons.

I find the 2025 deadline interesting... There was so much talk for so long about NPs needing a doctorate by 2015 but many NP friends have argued "that will never fly." Will the new CRNA regulation really stick or is this just another wild stab at demanding advanced education? I personally think its a good idea but see that these don't necessarily go as planned....

BTW in the majority of the states, a doctorate prepared nurse is not legally allowed to be called "doctor"... one of those things the AMA really pushed back on.... I suppose military rank changes the dynamics of all that, anyway.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
I agree, wtbcrna... Pay works out in the long run. Takes some time to get there, though and depending where you're located, civilians may advance in pay a bit quicker than military counterparts, based on my comparisons.

I find the 2025 deadline interesting... There was so much talk for so long about NPs needing a doctorate by 2015 but many NP friends have argued "that will never fly." Will the new CRNA regulation really stick or is this just another wild stab at demanding advanced education? I personally think its a good idea but see that these don't necessarily go as planned....

BTW in the majority of the states, a doctorate prepared nurse is not legally allowed to be called "doctor"... one of those things the AMA really pushed back on.... I suppose military rank changes the dynamics of all that, anyway.

The AANA and COA are the CRNAs' political organization and accrediting body. They adopted the recommendation for doctoral prepared CRNAs so unless a new amendment changes 2025 will be the start for all new CRNAs getting their doctorates as an entry level to practice. I do not see it changing since many of the CRNA programs are already in preparation or have made the change to doctorate degrees. The COA has also mandated that all CRNAs schools will have to goto a minimum of 3 years.

No, the majority of states do not have laws against nurses using the term Doctor in actuality very few states do. This was a topic covered a few times in my Doctoral program.

Pay: Staff Nurse - RN Salary | Salary.com The average salary for staff RN in the US is 67K

Military Pay: 0-1

Base: 2876

BAH: 1401 (San Antonio w/dependents)

BAS: 242

Total: 54K a year for a brand new nurse to start out, and only the base pay is taxable.

Military Pay: 0-3 >4yrs but

Base: 5,100

BAH: 1557

BAS: 242

Total: 82,788/yr

Just in the first 4 years the military nursing salary far out exceeds the average civilian RN salary, and I didn't even do the 2 year mark. This doesn't include all the other perks, tax-free shopping, tax-free pays etc. This also doesn't count the bonuses for nurses which can run from 5K-50K a year depending on speciality.

Military pay far exceeds the average civilian RN pay.

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Well that's good news! During the 20 years my husband put in, he spent about 70% of his career putting in overtime...By the time you broke down his pay without getting paid for all the extra hours put in, the paycheck was very...humble. Most of my friends are O4 and below and no one makes what you do....so I guess that's also a different perspective. I suppose every rate is different but I'll say from our experience I certainly didn't do it for the pay! Lol

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Well that's good news! During the 20 years my husband put in, he spent about 70% of his career putting in overtime...By the time you broke down his pay without getting paid for all the extra hours put in, the paycheck was very...humble. Most of my friends are O4 and below and no one makes what you do....so I guess that's also a different perspective. I suppose every rate is different but I'll say from our experience I certainly didn't do it for the pay! Lol

I posted the O-1 and O-3 pay, and I am just now an O-4 so I am kinda of clueless to what you mean about my pay being different. My bonus is whole whopping 10K/yr right now for being a CRNA during my payback for NA school. That puts me about 50K/yr below what the average civilian CRNA makes, but I was referring to nurses pay not CRNAs. I currently make what I do because of being stationed in Alaska. The amount of hours worked is going to directly correlate to someone's speciality and their duty station.

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