CRNA and family life:

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I've been skimming through the site during downtime. I'm a married father of two young daughters. My wife is currently working as a school nurse(BSN) and very much enjoying it. She started out in NICU but left due to absolute horrid management conditions. There was a small pay cut, expectedly, but that is more than made up in the enjoyment she is now able to get from her job. Our oldest will be 6 soon, and our youngest is now 15 months old. I'll finish my pre-reqs for the BSN program by spring of 2010 and then the 2 years for the BSN and 1-2 years experience for the CRNA school where my end goal is to get licensed as a CRNA.

All that said, my question is to those mothers and fathers out there that are CRNA's: If you could redo anything, would you and why?

For ICU experience, I'm deciding between trauma or cardio ICU.

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Can't speak to the question about family life and CRNA.

But I can suggest that you take the cardiovascular ICU for critical care experience rather than trauma ICU. CVICU RN's work closely with alot of the equipment that CRNA's use (i.e., vents., arterial lines, PA lines, etc.). The CV unit I work on has lost 5-6 RN's to CRNA school in the last 2 yrs.

Good luck.

JP

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Specializes in ER, ICU, CCU, CRNA.

What would I different? I would go to anesthesia school before I had kids. I couldn't, and you can't. That being said, with a family, there is no good time to undergo anesthesia training, you just ALL make the commitment, stay with it TOGETHER, and keep your eye on the prize.

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RunninDad,

If you have a choice of just the two, CVICU would probably be chosen by most trying to achieve their career goal. However, there is plenty to be learned in Trauma ICU and plenty of CRNA's have come out of Trauma ICUs. I work in a Trauma/Burn ICU and there is plenty of art-line, vent, PA, ventricular action. Our latest to leave for CRNA school starting Jan 09.

If you do some research and read through many of the posts if becomes apparent that yes, CVICU is great for the future CRNA, but other ICU's have produced multiple, well trained, successful CRNAs. Most school websites still list SICU and MICU as the top locations for nurses to get experience.

Bottom line--you will get great experience and get what you need from either venue.

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