Any CRNA's that love their job but........

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were not crazy about their ICU experiences they had to have to get there?

Tough shifts, difficult patients, arrogant doctors, code browns, etc........

I am truly fascinated with anesthesia and all the components involved with its administration. I have been doing a lot of research and reading about this field of healthcare and have become extremely interested in it. I realize the tough sacrifices one must make in order to become a CRNA and am really thinking hard about going for it but at the same time I worry that I will get through the BSN schooling and begin the ICU, not like it and become discouraged from pursing the CRNA and then be stuck.

Obviously this is a huge decision and I am just wondering if anyone has been in the position and can chime in.

Thanks.

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Loved ICU, LOVE anesthesia it is all what you make of it, if you really want it some fool or adversity will not stop you.

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I Wanted to be a Nurse first and foremost. Loved my floor and ICU experience. Put aside the tasks one must do as a nurse and see the person who is your patient, who needs your help and expertise. Become an experienced nurse and then look at anesthesia. You may not think you're stuck at all if you don't get into nurse anesthesia school.

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Specializes in CRNA.

Parts of being an ICU nurse are tough, but I thought it was great. Anesthesia for me has been an extension of what I did as an ICU nurse. Of the concerns you listed, you'll still have to manage those with the exception of 'code brown' situations. Most patients are scared, just remember that and they won't seem so difficult.

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Specializes in Nurse Anesthetist.

Be the best nurse you can be. Think of the patients and what you can do for another human being that changes and improves their life. Get some time in. Experience all there is. THEN, look at advancing your career. You may find that your knack is in education or management, or research. Get your BSN and explore your opportunities. In nursing, you are NEVER limited.

REMEMBER: nurses polish their halos every day.

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Specializes in CRNA, Law, Peer Assistance, EMS.

UUUUGHHHHHH... I HATE nursing...and LOVE anesthesia. Nurses polish their halo's every day??!!? Gimme a break! Only to get the snot, vomit, feces and sweat off after working like an indentured servant. (IMHO don't get made dear angels of mercy) Whether or not you like floor nursing, or even ICU (after a year or two), is NO predictor of what you will think of anesthesia. But if you don't like caring for sick patient's and THINKING while you do it....not gas passing for you. They are WORLDS apart. I will personally beat anyone who mentions Maslow or a care plan in the anesthesia lounge.

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Specializes in Nurse Anesthetist.

I was going to respond to foraneman, but have self-censored. Congratulate me on my restraint.

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Specializes in CRNA, Law, Peer Assistance, EMS.

Congratulations!

You have more self control than me for sure!

.

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Specializes in CRNA.
I will personally beat anyone who mentions Maslow or a care plan in the anesthesia lounge.

Well... I hate care plans, that's the first thing I wanted to know about nurse anesthesia school. If I was going to have to do care plans again, I swear I would not be a CRNA. (It would of been worth it, but I didn't know how much I would like being a CRNA). There was no way I was signing up for that again! But care plans had nothing to do with being an ICU nurse, and I really liked being an ICU nurse. Did I love every minute? no, but it was challenging and rewarding. Most of the concerns the OP listed are also part of anesthesia. You have long hours, and deal with difficult physicians, and difficult patients.

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Specializes in ICU.

SOOOO TRUE. I've had plenty of anesthetists say they could never go back to the unit. It is a totally different experience. Suck it up - it gets better. Some days you'll have great cases other days you'll do nothing but respond to code browns. It's a means to an end - plenty to learn along the way.

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If you do not like care plans, and the writing of careplans would dissuade you from CRNA school, by all means find another career... The careplans you made in nursing school were NOTHING compared to the ones you will write in CRNA school. And they WILL be looked and and they will be critiqued daily.

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Specializes in ICU.

Care plans by far are the worse part of anesthesia school. I hate them with passion. I would rather take another semester of anatomy then do care plans. I would rather stay extra 2 hours in OR for every care plan I have to do. Some one decided that we don't learn anything from copying and pasting when we make our care plans on computer, so our care plans have to be hand written. And then when you get to the OR, no one cares about your plan, because it doesn't even goes according to your plan, but the plan of MDA. Interesting enough, the anesthesia residents at least in our hospital don't have to do any care plans. Ask them who's better anesthesia provider. Nursing and care plans, it just never ends. Can't we do with out them?

Foraneman, I'm with you 100%. Anyone who mentions word "care plan" deserves a beating of a lifetime.

I just HAD to say it.

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