CRNA school?

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Hi everyone! I'm 18 years old and in my first year of college. I have some questions about crna school and the profession in general.

1. What is the program like? (If you are a crna I would love to know about your experience!)

2. Is there housing available for students at crna schools?

3. Does it matter if my nursing specialty before crna school is ER, OR, ICU, or med/surg? Is one preferable over the other to meet crna school requirements?

4. As previously stated, I'm 18 with no medical experience to date. Is there any way I could find an entry level medical job to get my foot in the door? I've tried applying online but all jobs require some experience or a class/certification.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Uhhhh you are aware that you need to go to nursing school and get your bachelors and then have at least 2 years ICU experience to apply, right?

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.

This may answer some of your questions.

http://www.aana.com/ceandeducation/becomeacrna/Pages/default.aspx

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You're a longgggg way away from CRNA school, but at least you're asking questions early in your journey. To sum it up, you need a BSN with the best grades you can get followed by a min of 1 year ICU experience(others have gotten in with ER and length of experience depends on the program).

I would look into possibly obtaining your CNA if your school offers it, that will at least get you in the door somewhere.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU.

Focus first on getting your BSN. Get into a good program, get the best grades possible and possibly work as a tech or CNA so that you have patient care experience . This will get your foot in the door for your first RN job. You will need a minimum of 1 year of critical care experience which most schools consider to be some type of adult ICU experience. Others wil accept ER, PICU, NICU, but your best bet is to get into the highest acuity adult ICU possible. Keep in mind that 1 year is the minimum, not the preferred. You are young, take advantage of that and spend a few years in a quality ICU and you will be a better practitioner for it. Good luck!

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Yes you are young but I also decided at 18 that I wanted to be a CRNA. In fact it was the only reason I even went to nursing school. I always had that goal and it gave me something to work towards. But you must realize that it will be at least 5 yrs or so til you even think of applying and thats if you finish school in 4 yrs. If you want to be a competitive applicant you will need around a 3.5 GPA so your first thing to do is to make sure you keep up your grads for your undergrad. Then you need to get ICU experience while also adding volunteer and leadership to your resume. The other best advice is to not get yourself in debt, and save a ton of money! My class had an average of $100,000 in student loans and I went to one of the cheaper programs out there. That was also a 2 yr program and with it moving towards DNP the time requirement will be longer than that and almost everyone doesnt work at all that entire time. It took me 10 years to get there but I did it!

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