Hello all! This thread is basically a big rant. hahaha. Well! I went into this profession with the ulitmate goal of becoming a CRNA. I've wanted it ever since the beginning. I will be starting my BSN program in the fall. I already have my ADN and am working in a med/surg ICU. During the next 2 years, I have to finish my degree, take the GRE, take a chemistry/stats class, take CCRN, and start the grad classes before I even apply......which will be in the spring of 2010. I plan to start the grad classes before I get an interview which would hopefully be in the fall of 2010. By that time I should have almost 3 years of ICU experience. Here's the thing. The ICU is soooooo depressing. None of our people end up getting better unless they're overflows. The staff is so rude and they don't help you at all. Ha, but they will criticize your every move......ESPECIALLY if you're new like me. I feel like I don't really know that much yet. I've only been in the ICU for 3 months. I don't know. I guess I'm just feeling down right now. I just wish that I could get it all now but I have to play the waiting game. People tell me that it is sooooo normal to feel overwhelmed in the ICU especially as a new grad but I just want to understand things. I do my research if I have questions, but I just wish that I could be super smart like these other ladies on my unit. Of course, their experience backgrounds range from 3-10 years. So, right now I am not enjoying my time in the ICU. I know this sounds bad, but I just want to learn everything I can and "do my time" so I can get the great experience that I need. I have a friend who is a CRNA and she told me that she HATED working in the ICU so it is normal to feel that way. One girl who worked on the unit hated the ICU so much that she dedicated all of her time and energy to meet the pre-reqs for CRNA school and got in eventually. I just wanted to hear your thoughts!!! To my aspiring CRNAs or CRNAs, did you like working in the ICU?? Be honest! :) Thanks for stopping by! :)
I love the CVICU and taking care of the fresh open heart patients. However, in saying that the nurses I am surrounded by are great and I could not ask for any better mentors and friends than my co-workers. My manager is also wonderful at supporting her staff. My favorite position is in the OR, I worked in the OR prior to my ICU experience. I did a little bit of everything scrub, circulated and recovered. I just think you need to find a place you can surround yourself with the right mentors.
Yes I was an ICU nurse for many years and eventually a nurse manager of an ICU. I loved being a staff nurse. It was a job few people were willing to do.
As for the staff being rude to you, get used to it,, nurses in general not only ' Eat their young"... If you so much as HINT you want to be a CRNA your life will be a living hell. Its called the CRAB BUCKET MENTALITY.
If you want a nice time during your BSN completion tell everyone you are going to be a CNS... or better yet a PhD and are going into teaching.. but for god's sake do NOT mention CRNA.
I took the same route you did,, except I went LPN.. ADN .. BSN .. MSN CRNA.. to whatever it takes to get into an anesthesia school you will NEVER EVER regret it.
Sorry I didnt express myself clearly. I did not mean that you needed to like all areas of the ICU. My thought is that you must enjoy one area/aspect of critical care (CVPACU, NICU, MICU, SICU, CCU, general ICU, etc.) - if you do not enjoy any of this type of work I think you will have issues with being a CRNA.
I dont understand why you think you will have issues becoming a CRNA if you didnt enjoy any aspects of ICU.
I personally hated working the ICU...I didn't find anything appealing about it what so ever. THE poop, the annoying families at time, all the phone calls from everyone while trying to give pt care, the baths, the turning heavy sedated patients.....what's exciting about that?
The one and ONLY thing I did enjoy was daily rounds with the doctors...learning about what was going on with the patient and the disease processes; ..everything else i did not like. i worked Shock Trauma, SICU, CVICU, and MICU....and I never would do flips and sing songs to come to work.
ICU is not for everyone...I have been a nurse ten yrs...I figured maybe I was just burned out?
Although I just started my clinical rotations and it is still very early and things can certainly change... but right now I love evrything about anesthesia that I have learn thus far. Maybe because its such a change and im learnng all new material? ....Who knows. ...I honestly find it interesting. In adition, I love taking care of one patient and it is extremly challenging. I think this will keep me happy for many yrs to come.
But I disagree, i dont think it is a MUST to enjoy ICU to be successful as a CRNA. The two are different in many ways. That's just like saying one must enjoy playing the piano to be a successful opera singer. My preceptor (CRNA) only worked ICU ONE Yr and then applied because he hated ICU so much.
Yes I was an ICU nurse for many years and eventually a nurse manager of an ICU. I loved being a staff nurse. It was a job few people were willing to do.
As for the staff being rude to you, get used to it,, nurses in general not only ' Eat their young"... If you so much as HINT you want to be a CRNA your life will be a living hell. Its called the CRAB BUCKET MENTALITY.
If you want a nice time during your BSN completion tell everyone you are going to be a CNS... or better yet a PhD and are going into teaching.. but for god's sake do NOT mention CRNA.
I personally did not expreience the attitude and the "living hell" while working ICU. I shared with everyone my desire to become a CRNA...and recieved mixed responses from everyone...but that is expected. Who cares? People are people and gonna have there own opinion and thoughts.
I personally dont see the reason the lie about your goals. Everyone has them...what is the difference in saying I want to be a PHd or CRNA or NP or a basket weaver.....they are all goals one set for themselves. I have worked with many nurses that pursued anesthesia and dont recall them going through living hell. If so, maybe low self esteem or some other personal issues are going on in order for someone to have the "GRAB THE BUCKET MENTALITY towards a nurse trying to pursue her goals. Really, that's just crazy to me.
yes and no, some things I like such as taking care of a really sick patient titrating gtts ect... however there are more things I do not like, and otthers have already covered those topics.
I know many crna's that did not like ICU nursing or even nursing in that matter, and are great crna's. I think the jobs are more different then they are alike (my opinion anyways). also, I definitely noticed some coworkers treating me different and talking, becasue I will be going to anesthesia school. should not have let it slip out, oh well. For those who plan on going, do not tell anyone, unless you want to be treated differently and what crappy assignments. we have several people in the unit I work in going to NP school and there seems to be a stigma against the few who are going the CRNA route.
What makes you think you will not clean up poop or give pts bedpans as a CRNA??
INFIDEL...that is true however, you will not be consisitently cleaning poop...in fact it is quite rare. In contrast, an ICU nurse can almost be certain when he/she go to work they will be cleaning poop.
I have yet to see a CRNA cleaning poop at my clinical facility, in fact, I dont even know where the bedpans are at my clinical facility. I AM NOT SAYING that it does not happen, I am just saying I haven't seen it yet and its rare.
What makes you think you will not clean up poop or give pts bedpans as a CRNA??
one thing for sure is there is no way you will be doing it as much as RN's do now, that is a fact.
I just go by what the CRNA's at the hospital I work at work tell me, when I ask them about their jobs and what not, they ALL say they dont miss cleaning up patients. not sure about what they do at others places of employment, but at the hospital I work at if there is a mess to be cleaned up in the OR the OR nurse does it, not the CRNA.
0 days :wink2: but hopefully in a couple of years i can give first hand information
like i said, im just going by what the CRNAs where I work tell me. I dont know if I will be doing it or not but rest assured I wont be doing it anywhere close to what I do now.
I loved working in the ICU until I hated it...I reached burnout after 4 years!! My last year in the ICU was like living a nightmare. Once I learned that I was accepted to anesthesia school it became even harder to go to work and put up with the patients, the families, certain physicians, etc, etc...
My last shift as a bedside nurse was on May 9th, when I clocked out at 0744 hrs on Saturday morning I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. All I was thinking was NO more bed baths, NO more tube feedings, NO more code browns, NO more alcoholic DTs...
My greatest motivation to succeed in CRNA school...NO more nights in the vegetable garden. I didn't go to nursing school to be a gardner...turn, water, and feed!! When I'm exhausted and feeling like I cannot possibly study another minute...I will think about the frequent, vent-dependent, fliers that made my life miserable.
Congrats!!! that's too funny a "gardener" (i know exactly what you mean)
I didn't go to nursing school to be a gardner...turn, water, and feed!! When I'm exhausted and feeling like I cannot possibly study another minute...I will think about the frequent, vent-dependent, fliers that made my life miserable.
jdiekhof
17 Posts
I love the CVICU and taking care of the fresh open heart patients. However, in saying that the nurses I am surrounded by are great and I could not ask for any better mentors and friends than my co-workers. My manager is also wonderful at supporting her staff. My favorite position is in the OR, I worked in the OR prior to my ICU experience. I did a little bit of everything scrub, circulated and recovered. I just think you need to find a place you can surround yourself with the right mentors.