Thinking About Nursing School

Could you be more specific as to what you would like to know? The education? Job itself? To answer your question about finding a job, the current market is better than most other careers, but it is still not easy to find a job like it was before the recession. The common notion is that nursing is immune from the poor economy, but this is simply not true. Hopefully by the time you would graduate nursing school, the economy will be in better shape

Your best bet is to apply to a BSN program as it is the fastest route. How are your grades from previous institutions? If your grades are not good enough to get into a univeristy, then you could for the associate's, and then work part-time while completing an RN-BSN program . Some BSN programs admit you into the nursing program upon admission to the university, others you must gain admission to the school, then apply to the nursing program separately. Regardless of which route you choose to take, there will be prerequisites you must take before you begin your core nursing courses such as English, anatomy and physiology, psychology and microbiology. Some schools have some of these classes as co-requisites. Once you graduate from nursing school, you must work at least 1-2 in critical care before you can apply to a nurse anesthesia program.

Remember that schools of nurse anesthesia are very competitive. A GPA >3.5 would be ideal. This is my goal as well, and will be shadowing a CRNA in about a week, which I also highly recommend in order to decide whether anesthesia is really what is right for you.

Any particular reason you are making a mad dash for CRNA?

that basically sums it up, but I wouldn't discourage you from applying to ADN programs since bridging from ADN to BSN is not hard and there are many programs out there. If you haven't taken your prerequisites then you can expect to get your BSN in 4 years, then work at least 1 year in ICU, and at least 2 years for the CRNA program. It is completely do-able since there are 50 year olds in my BSN program.