Certified Nurse Anesthesist

PMFB-RN, RN · Dec 15, 2007

I am currently a senior in high school in Florida, I have great grades and I'm sure I will be accepted to UCF, FSU, or any other universities.

I am willing to proceed my major as nursing and then specialize as an anesthesist, however i need your help.

When I go to college what courses do I take to become an RN, after that where do I go to pursue my degree as a CRNA? What University/college should I go to, should I go to a 2 yr AA community college then finish the other 2 years online?

Should I become an RN, work, then pursue CRNA?

I would love to hear your comments and suggestions please

*** To be a CRNA you MUST:

Be and RN.

Have a bachlors degree. All CRNA schools admit nurses with a bachlors degree in nursing, a few will admit RNs with BS degrees in other fields.

Have at least 1 year work experience in an intensive care unit as an RN.

My advice is to enter whatever nursing program will get you your RN fastest. If you go to a community college and get an ADN you can do an RN to BSN bridge in two years or less. These programs are desinged for working nurses. Or you can just go to a 4 year college and get your BSN to start with. As far as what CRNA school to go to, you schould got to the AANA web site. They list all the schools in the USA. CRNA is a masters degree program. They are 24 to 36 months long and extremely competative to get into. You will need at least a 3.0 GPA to apply (a few schools have 2.75 listed on their web sites) and something like a 3.5 to be competative.

ebear, BSN, RN · Dec 15, 2007

The course curriculum for nurses is specific to each university. After course completion, you will then take a test (NCLEX) to practice as a Registered Nurse. The same NCLEX exam is taken no matter what your degree, from Associates to Doctorate. This exam must be passed to practice as an RN in any area of nursing. It is OK to go the RN to BSN route, though I would suggest going ahead with the BSN, since it is required. All CRNA programs require at least 1 yr of critical care experience, sometimes 2. Keep your GPA very high, as these programs are very competetive to enter.

Good Luck!

ebear

dfk, RN, CRNA · Dec 15, 2007

The course curriculum for nurses is specific to each university. After course completion, you will then take a test (NCLEX) to practice as a Registered Nurse. The same NCLEX exam is taken no matter what your degree, from Associates to Doctorate. This exam must be passed to practice as an RN in any area of nursing. It is OK to go the RN to BSN route, though I would suggest going ahead with the BSN, since it is required. All CRNA programs require at least 1 yr of critical care experience, sometimes 2. Keep your GPA very high, as these programs are very competetive to enter.
Good Luck!
ebear

not required for all programs.

many will make exceptions with a Bachelor's degree

that is relevant to the field, providing requisites are met.

MB37 · Dec 15, 2007

If you're 18 years old and already know that you want to be a CRNA, I would recommend going to a 4-year university and getting the BSN right off the bat. There's nothing wrong with going the ADN/bridge to BSN route, but if you already plan on earning at least an MS, there's no reason to take the extra time to get an ADN. If you have good grades in FL (I live here too) you're eligible for Bright Futures, so money shouldn't really be an issue. I've only been here two years, so I don't know every public school here, but most of them at least offer BSN program - I know UCF and FSU both do, and I go to USF's accelerated program. UM, UF, and UNF all do too, so you can apply to all the public schools locally if you want or you're nervous about acceptance. You'll have to spend about 2 years doing prerequisite courses at whatever university you wind up at, and then you'll have to apply internally to their nursing school. Make sure you meet with an adviser early on in you college career to ensure that you're on the right track with your course selection - you have to be proactive about this, since a lot of large schools can lose track of individual students. If you have free time in your schedule, you might want to throw in a biochem or physics class, since some CRNA schools require these - check the websites of the ones in whatever part of FL you live in. You also have to stay focused - FL BSN programs are tough to get into, so every B you get is damaging. You want as close to a 4.0 as possible in prereqs, and aim for at least a 3.5 throughout to be an attractive candidate for CRNA programs. Good luck to you, keep asking questions, and it's awesome to see someone so young who knows what he wants!

alexleon13 · Dec 16, 2007

thank you very much for your suggestions, I will definetly keep up my grades, as for acceptance i will apply to every university, i am covered by bright futures and talented 20s which means i could get into any of the 11 universities in FL.

The hard part will be the switch from BSN degree to CRNA school.