Craig: (aka) nilepoc, Srna for a day.
Just read your entry for 10/15/02 and agree with you 100%. Although I am not in crna school yet, I have done all my nurs. edu. AD and BSN at a health science center that also has a medical school and have already come to some of the same conclusions you did in your post. As a matter of fact, I have a good friend who was a RN for about a year and is now in her first year of med school and has stated that nursing school in general puts you through more stress and BS than med. school. And she is referring to a BSN program not a CRNA program. That is why I get so upset too when people refer to nursing training as watered down and for people who couldn't get in med school. Nursing training at the under grad. and grad level is hard!!!
I too got into nursing with the long term goal of becoming a CRNA. But I do tell people who are undecided about whether to become a CRNA or pursue medicine, that if I had to do again, knowing now what I know about the BS associated with nursing school and at the bedside, I would have tried the MD rout. It is a very long road but seems to have less BS and much more respect and compensation. For anyone who would like to figure out where I am going with post please read the SRNA for a day entry for 10/15/02. Especially if you are thinking about nursing vs. medicine for a career choice.