ICU Internships

[SRNA4U, BSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Hi everybody,

I am currently on active duty in the Air Force and I want to fuflill my dream of becoming a CRNA. I have been on active duty for 9 years and I am currently an OR nurse. I have 6 years med-surg experience and 6 years OR experience. I recently submitted my package for CRNA school through the military and will find out the results next month. In the military, nurses are accepted who have experience in OR, ER, ICU, and PACU for the military's nurse anesthesia program. I scored 900 on my GRE and I completed biochemistry and statistics for the admission process. My undergrad was 2.8 so I recently completed my MSN in Nursing Education with a 3.91 GPA. I am thinking I may not get selected by the military because we are critically short of OR nurses (only 68% manned in this career-specialty), which may be a factor for me not getting selected for anesthesia school.

I emailed several civilian anesthesia program directors and they all tell me my grades and GRE scores are acceptable but I lack the ICU experience. My time committment is up with the Air Force in 2011 and I was thinking about transferring to the Reserves so I could go into an ICU internship to get my 1-2 years of ICU experience. Are there any hospitals on the east coast near VA/DC/MD areas that offer a good internship for nurses wishing to cross-train into critical care nursing? I have been searching on the net but I am not familiar with many of the hospitals in Maryland other than the obvious- Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Shock Trauma Facility. I have a license from the state of Texas, which is a part of the compact with VA and Maryland. I am in the process of applying for a DC license since Washington Hospital Center is located there. Any suggested tips would be appreciated. The fathest north I am willing to go is Pennsylvania and the farthest south is Virginia.

Thanks,

Antonio

[detroitdano]

One problem I foresee is ICU's don't have a shortage of nurses. They are looking to hire people that want to work for there for a good while. The internships are costly for them and they want someone who is probably going to commit a good number of years to the job.

A lot of managers understand that people go into ICU just for the 1-2 years they need for CRNA school and then they're up and gone.

You're a bit older, and the interview question "What is your career goal?" is going to be tougher to answer. You know what it is. If you're comfortable answering "Work here for a few years then go to CRNA school" by all means go for it. It's entirely the truth but it might scare off some managers hiring you.

Just a little input, I hope you don't take it the wrong way.

[SRNA4U, BSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Thanks for the advice. The military has an ICU fellowship for nurses but that deadline has already passed. I may just stay on active duty and apply for the ICU fellowship through the military.

Thanks.