1st year FNP student planning for CRNA school

[Meant2be]

I know it's counterproductive but I'm earning an FNP certificate as my personal plan B. I already have my BSN I can fall back on. But ultimately want to become a CRNA and a future scholar in that field. Currently, I am a first year FNP student. I know I practice some medicine already just by working FT as an telemetry RN in a teaching hospital with prior ICU experience. I always collaborate with Attendings and give recommendations to interns and residents when it comes to prescribing meds to acute patients. I make my own assessment/planning and can deal with the stress of working with complex cases/people just in the staff nurse role. I am 25 years old with one more year to finish the FNP program. I feel if I just focused on being CRNA without a background in family medicine, I will fail and have a hard time. If you can think parallel to a regular Anesthesiologist. They have to go through medical school which is 4 years. Then an internal medicine residency which may take 3 years. Then Anesthesia fellowship which can take a couple more years. By then, they are seasoned practitioners of Anesthesia. That doesn't mean CRNA school alone can not prepare a proper Nurse Anesthetist because they do. In fact, CRNA school is probably harder to most. However, I personally believe having a background in medicine will help. That's why I'm pursuing an FNP before a CRNA. With school aside, getting a CRNA position is not about the skills you acquire from school because every CRNA graduate will have similar skills. I'm guessing it will be more about the type of person you are. Are you a team player? How you deal with failure? How do you deal with stress? What do you do make the profession better? The journey you take to get to a destination tells a lot about you.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

You should spend a lot of time shadowing different CRNAs. Things will make more sense after talking/shadowing a CRNA for a few hours.

[loveanesthesia]

I know I practice some medicine already just by working FT as an telemetry RN in a teaching hospital with prior ICU experience.......Anesthesiologist. They have to go through medical school which is 4 years. Then an internal medicine residency which may take 3 years.

What you are doing is practicing nursing, not medicine. Also some anestheiologists complete a year of internal med prior to 3 year residency in anesthesia. Most do not, and 3 years in internal med is not required and would be very unusual. What you need to do is spend time in an ICU.

[BCRNA]

Working on an FNP while trying to get into school will look very good on your application. Even better would be an acute care NP. It would help a little in your understanding, but not enough that it would ever be a requirement. ICU experience with use in vasoactive drugs would help the most, you will learn all the advanced stuff in anesthesia school. Though I would also add, you could do a post masters program and have fewer classes while in school, and not have to worry with a thesis or research. Which is a very smart move, you could focus just on the anesthesia and not the filler courses. Especially if you choose a school that loves nursing theory, waste of time for anesthesia. There are no nursing theorists that directly apply to giving anesthesia. A few address stress management for the patient, but that is as close as it gets.

I would suggest to anybody to pursue a NP while trying to get into an anesthesia program. I got through half of the program for an ACNP before getting into anesthesia. It shows motivation and the ability to be successful in graduate school. The pharmacology and patho classes help alot.