Becoming RN solely to become CRNA

ICU, RN, BSN, B.S. · Jul 4, 2011

How many people do that? Is it advisable? Did you / would you?

That is the reason I went into nursing. I was on a medical/tele floor for almost 3 years, and just got hired into a MICU/SICU. I love being a nurse. I want to be a CRNA, but if for some reason that didn't work out, I would still love being an RN.

puravidaLV · Jul 11, 2011

who said it was bad to have a long term goal and a short term to get there?

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Sep 7, 2011

umm don't you know nursing is supposed to be a calling.otherwise you can't be a good nurse. and money shouldn't be important. real nurses don't need monetary compensation b/c the warm fuzzy feelings are payment enough.

That might be your opinion but not all nurses agree with your view that nursing is a "calling." To me it was no different than picking a career in any field, be it accounting or teaching or nursing. To me nursing isn't just about people feeling called to be caregivers. Some people make excellent nurses have completely different motivations, be it trying to make a decent income to support a family, a desire to work in a field with opportunities for advancement, or just because nursing had good career outlooks when they entered the field.

michele742 · Sep 7, 2011

@ChristineN - I'm pretty sure whomever you quoted above was being sarcastic :) Hey, I will be the first to admit, I'm not going into nursing for the warm fuzzy feelings and wanting to care for people. I'm going into it because I am fascinated by medicine and the processes of the human body (although I have a warm and caring personality...so that is a definite 'plus' in nursing). If I were younger, I would have probably gone to med school. Being a nurse is a perfect medium ground for me...an important position in the medical field, make decent income to support my family, won't take me 15 years to complete Being a CRNA would fulfill that desire even more...but, I am thinking being an OR nurse would also work (at least for me). Have to wait and see :)

mystory, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2012

I did, and so did many people in my accelerated BSN program. We graduated 3 years ago, and 5 of them are in CRNA school according to facebook. They saw working as a staff nurse as an unfortunate "means to the end" to becoming a CRNA. I see no problem with it, they were all exceptionally motivated and it showed in their academic and clinical performance. As for me..in clinicals I realized that I hated dealing with tubes, intubation, hemodynamics, etc.. and loved psychiatric and substance abuse patients. So here I am in a psych NP program. :)

Will I make as much money as my CRNA peers? Not by a long shot. But I will be working with populations I genuinely enjoy. So long story short, there is nothing wrong with pursuing an RN degree with the sole intention of being a CRNA. But keep an open mind..because studies have indicated over and over that as long as you can provide for minimum necessities, money has no association on happiness.