Advice for getting into CRNA school?

sanovin · Nov 21, 2014

Is there nobody that can answer some of these questions?

ValarMorghulis · Nov 21, 2014

I applied at UMN, so I'm biased. Mayo CRNAs are known to not be that autonomous, but it's a great school if you want to stay in Rochester forever. Franciscan Skemp I've heard is good, but more importantly super inexpensive.

sanovin · Nov 22, 2014

I agree that UMN is a wonderful school. Upon looking at the curriculums of each school it appears that Mayo really pushes heavy science onto their CRNA students. I'm curious as to why you say they are known not to be very autonomous?? I know the top two schools she's looking at are UMN and Mayo so your opinions would be helpful!

Mully · Nov 23, 2014

It's important to note the political climate of anesthesia in America for a thorough answer to your questions, which is an entire bag of worms that goes beyond the scope of this thread. Suffice it to say that more important than how much science a program presents (although that is important and should be considered. I leaned toward a school that offers a Masters of Science - Anesthesia as opposed to a Masters of Science in Nursing because I'd prefer to stick to the science and ditch the nursing theory) is whether or not they train their CRNA students to be FULL SERVICE PROVIDERS. This can't be emphasized enough. I've heard from the bowels of the internet, and I can't verify it to be true with anything other than hearsay, that Mayo's program is crap for this. I could be wrong, but would be surprised if I were. It goes against common wisdom because Mayo's name is synonymous with educational excellence and top tier health care. However, this delves into the political aspect referenced earlier, and the incentive that MDAs have at limiting CRNAs scope of practice. I encourage you and especially your girlfriend to further research these topics before picking a school.

One real world example. Some schools heavily influenced by the political MDAs at their main clinical sites, have great difficulty getting their students the amount of experiences they need, mostly with technical things like inserting central lines, arterial lines, doing regional/peripheral nerve blocks, and getting all around autonomous clinical experience with tough cases. Yeah the students might get the required number of whatever to graduate, but are they proficient? Not likely. Could they do it without an MDA standing over their shoulder? It's worth asking.

Some places, MDAs don't even let CRNAs push the induction drugs when inducing anesthesia. Meanwhile, at the school I chose, as a first semester student it was expected of me to be pushing my own drugs. I think a lot of people experience a strange juxtaposition of emotions when they are so thrilled to be accepted to ANY school, then once in clinical, feel somewhat disillusioned and gypped that they are getting a sub-par clinical experience.

Keep researching. That's my advice.

mh0712, MSN, RN · Dec 2, 2014

Sanovin-

My best advice for choosing a school is to look at the clinical experience that you will get. It was mentioned above that you want to be a full service provider, not someone's lackey. You need a program that lets you put in your own CVL, Swans, Arterial Lines, and gives you way more than the minimum number of cases. There is a big difference in someone who did the minimum in anesthesia school and someone who did double that. In the end, chose a program that trains you to be an independent provider. I have heard and this is complete third or fourth hand info, but that some program directors have encouraged students NOT to work in opt out states or independently. To me that just shows that they have no confidence in their program or that they are blind to the fact that every new graduate CRNA should be prepared to perform any anesthetic they learned in school proficiently and safely. Find a good school that offers good clinical, and as mentioned above a big name like Mayo does not mean great experience. In fact, sometimes the big name schools give the worse experience; however, each school and students need to be interviewed individually in order to get a full understanding.