Advice Appreciated (ADN to Anesthesiologist or CRNA)

GeminiNurse29 · Apr 9, 2018

Can I ask why you want to pursue CRNA besides the $$?

I believe nearly all CRNA programs require the acute care ICU experience like you said.

I cannot speak for the medical degree excerpt my mom's boss' husband is an anesthesiologist and he was a psych major.

If you're good at the hard sciences, and you are looking at things from a $$ point of view (which is fine), why don't you go for the med school goal?

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · Apr 10, 2018

I would get the BSN instead of another major. CRNA schools are notoriously ridiculously competitive. Nearly all of your competition will have a BSN, and I doubt that an ADN plus a non-BSN Bachelors degree would be nearly as competitive. Just because you'd meet the minimum technical requirements (RN licensure plus a Bachelors of some kind) doesn't mean it would be a competitive applicant.

I'd start your first job, then focus on the BSN program. Before you start worrying about the other pre-reqs you need (gen chem, organic chem, calculus, whatever), I'd see how demanding the BSN program is. The last thing you'd want to do is sign up for too many classes, overextend yourself, do poorly, and destroy your GPA. If your GPA is poor (especially your nursing GPA), you will not be competitive enough to get into CRNA school. Your first year of nursing will be hard no matter what specialty you're in, and ICU will have an even steeper learning curve. You don't want to juggle too many classes on top of it.

The year of critical care experience is non-negotiable for CRNA school, and you'll be even better off if you can get a couple of years of experience. As an ADN, you may have a harder time finding an ICU position as a new grad depending on your job market. If your area is saturated with new grad BSNs, you may have to apply to ICU positions in less competitive regions in order to find a unit that will hire you. If your area is not as competitive, you may easily find an ICU job. I'd cast a wide net and apply to a ton of places, including units in less desirable locations, in order to increase your chances of landing an ICU job as a new grad. If you're limited to a specific geographic location, I'd apply to all of the ICUs that you can, and if you aren't accepted just start out in med-surg and eventually work your way into the ICU once you have some experience. California is a notoriously competitive new grad job market (I know BSNs from CA who couldn't get hired into med-surg or even LTC for 6+ months after graduating, and eventually moved to the south-east to find jobs); realistically, you may have a better chance if you relocate.

I'd say best case scenario you get an ICU job straight out of school (which may require relocating, possibly to another state), start your BSN program right away, finish up your BSN and other prereqs during your first two years of nursing practice, get your CCRN, and apply. That means about two to three years after graduating before you can start your CRNA program (assuming you get an ICU job as a new grad, and assuming you are accepted to CRNA school in your first application cycle).

If you're good at the hard sciences, and you are looking at things from a $$ point of view (which is fine), why don't you go for the med school goal?

Strongly disagree.

I completed all of my pre-med requirements before I realized I wanted to do nursing, and IMHO given your goals and background med school would be a terrible choice. You will need a Bachelor's degree in order to apply to med school, and being totally honest an online ADN-to-BSN degree would not make you a competitive enough applicant to be accepted. In order to follow a pre-med path, you'd need to be accepted into a brick-and-mortar 4-year college that would hopefully accept your ADN credits, complete enough courses to finish a major, and also complete enough courses to finish all of your pre-med pre-reqs (a full year of general chemistry followed by a full year of organic chemistry, simultaneously taking a full year of college physics, a full year of college calculus and/or statistics and a full year of college biology). Med schools won't accept any community college courses as pre-reqs, so even if you've taken biology/chemistry/calculus, you'd have to repeat it. You'd then have to study for the MCAT and go through the med school application process (which takes about 6 months). There's also the matter of your nursing experience. Once you have experience you could feasibly work PRN nursing shifts while simultaneously competing your pre-med classes, but when you first start out in nursing you'll have to work full-time (probably for at least a year) before you're even eligible to go PRN. There's no possible way that you could work full-time as a nurse while simultaneously completing your pre-med pre-reqs and Bachelor's full time.

What I mean to say is that if you really want to be a doctor I'm sure you're totally capable of doing it, but it will probably take you at least 4 years before you could even start med school. Best case scenario ~ 3 years to complete a Bachelors degree and your med-school pre-reqs full-time, 1 year to take your MCAT, apply, and wait for the program to start (you apply in September and don't start until the next summer). In that scenario you would literally never use your RN license; if you did want to work as an RN part-time throughout this process (which would be insane, since you'd be taking full-time pre-med super-difficult science classes), you'd have to take a year off before you even begin this process in order to work as a new grad RN full-time before you drop down to part-time. There is absolutely no way that you could work full-time as an RN and simultaneously take and pass college chemistry, biology, physics, and math; you would die. As a full-time student, you'd be in a mountain of debt before you even start med school (which will tack on at least another $100,000 in debt), even if you did have a PRN nursing job throughout.

In the CRNA route I laid out above, best case scenario you'd be starting school in 2 years, and during the period in between you'd be working full-time so you'd actually be making money. Conversely, in the med school scenario you'd be a full-time pre-med student/applicant for at least 4 years while making little-to-no money and amassing debt. Since it sounds like your goal is to work in anesthesia as soon as humanly possible, the CRNA route seems like the best bet.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Apr 10, 2018

I have only one thing to add to adventure_rn's informative and detailed post:

You don't get to practice as an anesthesiologist after medical school. You'd then need to complete an additional 4 years of residency before you could become board-certified. So that's 3 years to complete your undergrad degree, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years of residency. Compare that to 2 years to get your BSN, 2 years of ICU experience, and 3 years of CRNA school.

Kilos89, BSN · Apr 16, 2018

I know of people who have managed to squeeze in med school pre reqs while working full time. To me the biggest factor is time. I guess my best bet is continue with the BSN and see how my first year of nursing along side working on my BSN goes. If it's managable I'll add in one class. Getting into ICU is going to be a challenge as a new grad I feel.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2018

I know of people who have managed to squeeze in med school pre reqs while working full time. To me the biggest factor is time. I guess my best bet is continue with the BSN and see how my first year of nursing along side working on my BSN goes. If it's managable I'll add in one class. Getting into ICU is going to be a challenge as a new grad I feel.

There are critical care residencies for new grads all over the country. Many of them are very competitive, meaning GPA requirements are high.