Anesthesia-High Stress

[Zaphod, BSN, RN]

Hi everyone. I just applied to UM/Barry CRNA schools. Have 2 years ICU experience with the last 6 months being in open heart unit(3 years by the time program starts). That being said I am such a burnout right now that am considering doing home health just to steer away. I have never had this level of anxiety/depression and its taking a toll on me. It is not the recovery but really interaction with staff, highly unstable patients and unreasonable patients and families that are making me want to run away. On the other hand I love hard sciences and organic is my favorite subject. I think I would enjoy anesthesia because I am slightly introverted and pretty good with pharmacology/patophisiology.

My question is-Is anesthesia a lot more stresfull, just as stressful or completely different from working in a busy CVICU. If it is just as stresfull I just wont handle it and will retire to community health or something not so nerveracking. Perhaps there are fields in anesthesia where I would be able to have more/less stable patients and grow as a practitioner.

Sorry everyone for the long post. Little lost here.

[Jdog19s]

Speaking from a students perspective, I am far more stressed out providing anesthesia than I was recovering open heart patients. Perhaps it is because in the ICU you have plenty of nurses to help you make decisions, and now you have to make them quickly and independently. However, who knows if you will feel the same way I do, and also, maybe after you have done anesthesia for awhile you are much more relaxed.. I'm not sure. I've only been giving anesthesia for 2 months as a student-