Re: Should I reveal CRNA plans to hospital?
It's definitely the kiss of death in most interviews, at least in my area. Once you get hired though, it depends where you work and what the culture is like. Half the nurses on my unit are taking advanced courses in prep for NA, NP, MBA, MPH, or whatever their interest is. Several talk openly about plans for NA school. Our manager happens to support higher education, plus many of the nurses never wind up following through - we have several who have been on the unit for over a decade. I'm still fairly new, so I don't talk about it yet. It's important to me that I become competent in my ICU before moving on.
I believe that's what I said when I interviewed as well: "Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?" "Well, I do eventually plan on continuing my education. I'm not 100% sure which direction I will head, and for the moment I'd like to focus on becoming an excellent critical care nurse. I'm hoping that getting great experience here will help me to make that decision down the line." Later on in the interview, it was time for me to ask questions. One that I asked was what qualities tend to help new grads become successful in critical care. She responded that you need to be incredibly focused on what you're learning every day, willing to do outside study, etc., and "the poorest ICU nurses I see are those who are just here to do their one year before applying for CRNA school." Gee was I glad I hadn't mentioned that as even a possible goal of mine.
Anyways, good luck with NS and beyond!
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