Advice for Aspiring CRNA

JoseQuinones · Mar 31, 2015

Let me weigh in here as a person who went into the BSN program thinking that CRNA was the only way to go. In fact, my original reason for going into nursing at all was to study CRNA - not because it paid well, but because it was anesthesia and (I thought) it would get me there faster than going the anesthesiologist route. Now that I am finishing my BSN, my feelings about it are mixed.

For one thing, nursing is a lot broader than you may suspect. I have found that there are many other areas of nursing than I knew before, and many are very attractive. I thought anesthesia was the only medical field that could possibly interest me, but now I am not so certain.

Secondly, in order to get into CRNA school, you'll need that elusive one to three years of critical care experience. My experience has been that critical care departments are well aware of the fact that new graduate nurses see them as a feed-in to get their experience and bounce out to CRNA school. So they are reluctant to hire new grads. Your mileage may vary, but from what I have seen and the people I have talked to, your path to CRNA school may be a lot longer than you suspect.

Thirdly, the word is getting out that CRNA's make bank and so more and more people are going into it. The days when we could command >$150,000 forever are ending. It still pays more than normal bedside nursing, but where there is gold, there is a gold rush - and pay goes down.

Fourth, there are already rumors that robots will begin replacing CRNA's before too much longer. Maybe not this year or next, but sometime in the future. The anesthesia department of the future will likely be one MD anesthesiologist and a few anesthesia assistants overseeing the work of machines.

Fifth - and perhaps most impacting for me - when I examine the requirements to get into CRNA school, I see that they fulfill most of the requirements to get into medical school. And the cost of a CNRA is comparable to a medical degree. Given that you'll need your four year degree, plus a couple years of experience (which you may not get right away), and you'll have to quit your job to study CRNA anyway, does it really save you any time? If your passion truly is anesthesia, what about pursuing it another way?

You can see I've spent lots of time thinking this over as I stare at the ceiling at night, and I've spent a lot of time calling around to different schools, talking with current and future CRNA's, and speaking with anesthesiologists.

Best of luck on whatever you decide.

jsteeler · Mar 31, 2015

Thank you for your insight. I appreciate the advice.

RNDude2012 · Mar 31, 2015

Since deciding to pursue nurse anesthesia, I've thought about most of your points as well. However, I do disagree with some of them. If you look on gaswork, there are A LOT of openings with > 150k salaries. I even saw one as high as 300k. Are these positions in the most desirable areas? Probably not by most people's standards, but if you're willing to relocate it seems that the money is there. I recently spoke with a CRNA, and she said her starting pay was 114k. BUT, she left after a year and now has a base pay of 160k with an annual 15-25k bonus and a 25k sign on. One thing that does worry me though, is market saturation. In terms of how > 2400 CRNAs graduating each year affects the job market, one can only speculate. Sure, the average CRNA is in their late 40s. But I've also read CRNAs tend to retire much later in life than the average bedside nurse does. I'm sure that the Affordable Care Act will continue to contribute to the increased use of CRNAs though in an effort increase affordability for the general population as more and more individuals gain access to healthcare. You also have to take the fact that CRNAs are gaining more independence and autonomy into consideration. Also, the amount of elderly people who will need care is on course to increase quite a bit due to the aging baby boomer population.

In regards to robots administering anesthesia, nobody can predict the future. Sure, a robot can administer a drug, but I'm not sold on a robot replacing human judgement to monitor a patient undergoing anesthesia. Also, if a machine DID do most of the work, having an MDA manage a machine would NOT be cost effective.

Do I worry that there may not be a job ready for me when I'm done and deep into debt from school loans? Sure. I have confidence in my ability to interview though, and I'm sure I'll be able to get a job. You only have one go around at life, and I believe that you might as well do what makes you happy. If you think anesthesia might be what will give you professional fulfillment, then do it!

Let me weigh in here as a person who went into the BSN program thinking that CRNA was the only way to go. In fact, my original reason for going into nursing at all was to study CRNA - not because it paid well, but because it was anesthesia and (I thought) it would get me there faster than going the anesthesiologist route. Now that I am finishing my BSN, my feelings about it are mixed.
For one thing, nursing is a lot broader than you may suspect. I have found that there are many other areas of nursing than I knew before, and many are very attractive. I thought anesthesia was the only medical field that could possibly interest me, but now I am not so certain.
Secondly, in order to get into CRNA school, you'll need that elusive one to three years of critical care experience. My experience has been that critical care departments are well aware of the fact that new graduate nurses see them as a feed-in to get their experience and bounce out to CRNA school. So they are reluctant to hire new grads. Your mileage may vary, but from what I have seen and the people I have talked to, your path to CRNA school may be a lot longer than you suspect.
Thirdly, the word is getting out that CRNA's make bank and so more and more people are going into it. The days when we could command >$150,000 forever are ending. It still pays more than normal bedside nursing, but where there is gold, there is a gold rush - and pay goes down.
Fourth, there are already rumors that robots will begin replacing CRNA's before too much longer. Maybe not this year or next, but sometime in the future. The anesthesia department of the future will likely be one MD anesthesiologist and a few anesthesia assistants overseeing the work of machines.
Fifth - and perhaps most impacting for me - when I examine the requirements to get into CRNA school, I see that they fulfill most of the requirements to get into medical school. And the cost of a CNRA is comparable to a medical degree. Given that you'll need your four year degree, plus a couple years of experience (which you may not get right away), and you'll have to quit your job to study CRNA anyway, does it really save you any time? If your passion truly is anesthesia, what about pursuing it another way?
You can see I've spent lots of time thinking this over as I stare at the ceiling at night, and I've spent a lot of time calling around to different schools, talking with current and future CRNA's, and speaking with anesthesiologists.
Best of luck on whatever you decide.

icunurse1 · Mar 31, 2015

The biggest advice I have is to get ICU experience at a big teaching hospital. I'm not sure where you are located, but there are many hospitals across the country that have "New Grad" or "Nurse Residency" programs and they will let you begin in the ICU. I went this route (had to move to a different state because of it, but it was well worth it to get such great experience), and was recently accepted into CRNA school. I know a few friends who also applied to various schools, but they have worked at smaller hospitals and were not accepted. Not to say where you work is the only factor they look at (they obviously take into account a lot of other things), but working at a large teaching hospital will definitely make you look better! It also helps when the hospital you work at is a Level I Trauma Center, Comprehensive Stroke Center, etc etc.... Good luck!

dcwang · Mar 31, 2015

Like OP I'll be starting nursing school soon. I'm very concerned about the nursing surplus in socal that I'm willing to go to a much less dream job here. I chose the ABSN route instead of direct entry masters, which doesn't specialize or for cnl. I also feel uncertain what I want to do for my masters because I've heard that they're graduating too many Crna and NPs. The two posters above differed a little on the future of anesthesia, and differing views make me think I want to get down my basics and observe potential job market. Basically every nursing Student wants to do NP or Crna so who's gonna want to stay and do beside nursing? Some of them don't Want to do beside nursing but use it as a stepping stone for NP/Crna school. Also with Obama care who knows what's going to happen. I want to do beside first and then specialize but don't want to be possibly a part of a surplus of NP or Crna. Also, NP or Crna isn't the only path for graduate study. I'm not one of those nursing students who are already dreaming of icu ER or peds. I like OR and Pacu as of now.Nursing school rotations will be an opportunity to experience different specialties.

guest769224 · Mar 31, 2015

Fourth, there are already rumors that robots will begin replacing CRNA's before too much longer. Maybe not this year or next, but sometime in the future. The anesthesia department of the future will likely be one MD anesthesiologist and a few anesthesia assistants overseeing the work of machines.

Jose, I seriously doubt this will take place. Do you have any evidence that can back this up?

There's no way that type of structure could maintain the complexities on their own.

JoseQuinones · Mar 31, 2015

Jose, I seriously doubt this will take place. Do you have any evidence that can back this up?
There's no way that type of structure could maintain the complexities on their own.

There is no machine at present that can take over completely, but many medical equipment manufacturers are working on bringing robots to market. I dropped in on a medical equipment convention in San Diego last year and they were showing off a model that was meant to be used to sedate patients for colonoscopies. The sales guys were busy telling hospital administrators how much they could save by doing just what I suggested above, and lots of them were taking brochures. They had a computer mockup of a sort of Star Trek looking "bridge" with one anesthesiologist monitoring the work of a bunch of machines and assistants, chilling with a coffee or something. So you see how the CRNA was cut out of the vision entirely. The machine was not for sale yet, but they were sure working up interest.

As to robots with the ability to maintain the complexities all on their own, today's Cadillac can only park itself or drive you on the highway, but the distance from today's capabilities to tomorrow's fully autonomous cars is mostly a matter of figuring out the legalities. We live in a time of exponentially more capable machines.

Like I said, it won't happen today or tomorrow - but given that the OP hasn't even started nursing school yet, he is at least 7 years from applying to a CRNA school - or more, depending on the experience component.

ValarMorghulis · Mar 31, 2015

LOL. Oh, robots.

guest769224 · Apr 1, 2015

It will be interesting to see if CRNA salaries DO decrease. You're right about the gold rush thing. 9 out of the 10 guys in my ICU have already applied and been accepted to CRNA programs. I have done some serious digging and most of them told me "I am only doing this for the financial incentive". Which I can understandâ€¦it's certainly attractive, but I wonder how things will look in 5 years from now for CRNA's. I want to do CRNA but it would be for the money and that's it!

Da_Milk_of_Amnesia, MSN · Apr 1, 2015

aTruthfully, If you think becoming a CRNA will allow you to make more money for less work, you're wrong. Sorry. And as someone who is going to graduate in the next 5 months who is currently looking for jobs, I can tell you that the market is tight and IMHO there feels like a surplus of new grads and it is driving down wages. Yea there are places where you can make 150K+ a year, but they tend to be in not so nice or far away areas. Sorry, but people who come right out of the gate saying that they wanna be a CRNA and haven't even been a nurse for any amount of time make me think they are in it for the money. You can say that the money has nothing to do with it, but there's 2 chances that Im gonna believe you or anyone for that matter....slim and none, sorry just being honest.

And to be honest, if you think being a CRNA is all action and glamorous then you need to shadow someone. It's not all action, and being that your an ex (or current) medic, I know the mentality, I've been in EMS for almost 13 years.

herbie06 · Apr 1, 2015

Here's an interesting article about said robots. . .

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