CRNA school w/ family

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Hey All! Long timer lurker on this site. Hope you are all well today. I am an MSICU/Open Heart Recovery RN. I am planning on applying for CRNA school within the next year and a half. What are you guys and gals' experiences with getting through CRNA whilst maintaining and somewhat supporting a family? I guess what I'm asking specifically is what is the best course of action for someone like myself who is the prime financial contributor of the family and a father of an 8 and 2 year old to get through CRNA school? Maybe some tips, suggestions, or advice from those who have done it. My partner makes alright money but could not support the four of us on just her income alone. Though, I do plan on taking some loans obviously and we are working on cutting back on expenses a great deal. How did you all do it? Thanks in advance!

Justin

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Would not be feasible for me if my wife didn't make as much money as she does. I saved a lot before applying. I worked a lot of overtime Worked first semester and saved as much as possible. I also received a stipend from my program (about 1k per month, before taxes).

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Save a lot. Spend less. Also you can usually get Grad Plus loans that cover most living expenses. As far as family time, I spend more time with the family now than I did as an ICU nurse. Now I'm home to put the kids down every night, Home every weekend, Home every holiday. When I was in the unit none of those were true. Biggest mistake I've seen is not to address the difficulty with your significant other BEFORE school starts. I prepared my wife for the worst so now she constantly says that school isn't as hard on the family as we thought it would be.

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I'm starting school this fall with wife and four kids. Wife will be homeschooling all our kids. I plan on using every available resource to make this work! Grad plus loans, state welfare (I'm in California, so good or bad there are a ton of welfare options), liquidating assets, etc. After seeing friends go through it and talking with many students, I have a lot of hope that it is doable! Rice and beans for three years, baby!

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Moving in with parents like a true millennial. Lol. Selling house and using equity to pay for tuition. Hoping to break even. Sending kids to local preschool. Spouse makes a decent salary with good benefits. Like previous poster rice and beans for a few years. But being Hispanic that's just business as usual.

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Lol. That's great, man. Coming out of school debt free would be ideal! I think I'm going to hold onto my house and let it to continue to build equity throughout school while renting it out. If that doesn't seem viable, I'll sell it as well and use the money to live on. Either way, after school the plan is to continue to live minimally until loans are paid off which hopefully won't take too long.

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We would love to keep our house seeing as how it's only about 20 minutes from Loma Linda but the market is too good right now. Knowing California economics the market is going to take a dip leaving us with student loans and less equity in the house. Hate to leave the housing market seeing how hard it is to get back into it. Hope every family in California the best success. Gas tax alone might put me into debt.

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Haha, I was debating doing the same thing! My mom lives right around the corner and has always been extremely helpful and supportive (babysitting the kids, weekends at grandma's, etc.). She actually has a big add on to the back of her house too! I could pay her in household chores like back when I was 15! lol Can you guys elaborate more on loans available? What are Grad plus loans? Also, Some of you talked about programs that will help you pay for some monthly expenses. How do you apply/tap in to those types of resources? I am in North Florida BTW. Thanks for the great experiences and hope.

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