CRNA/SRNAs : Did/does your school have a strong clinical component?

[chocolateistheanswer]

Hi SRNAs and CRNAs!

I have always wanted to go to anesthesia school, since before I started nursing school and now that I have 1 year and 4 months of Neuro ICU experience (who's counting, right?)... I'm now ready to start prepping for the application process for hopefully 2018 start.

Anyway, I am looking into programs, specifically Doctoral programs since the recommendation by the AANA is to change all programs to doctorate degrees by 2025.

Has anyone, SRNA or now CRNA attended a doctoral program with a particularly strong clinical component ? I want to make sure I am exposed to difficult cases, won't be competing with med students to do procedures and get lots and lots of exposure.

Thanks in advance!!

[SanDiFrangles, RN, NP, CNS]

Not true in my area. I worked in the CICU for 4 years and at least three people from my unit went to CRNA school. They all went to the best school in the state and none of them were terribly experienced, one of them even had an online Master's from Phoenix U and only had 1 year of experience. Yes, it's competitive, but they look at the individual uniquely and all of these candidates were exceptional and got accepted on their merit. OP sounds like an exceptional candidate too. Wish you luck! Go for it!

So I did a bit of research in this area and so from my perspective I think that clinically-experienced and recent RN graduates with 3 years or less experience each come to the table with pros and cons. For the clinically experienced, they tend to do very well in clinical but might struggle more with the academic side initially. Regarding the recent RN graduate with 3 years of experience or less, they often excel in the academic area but might find clinical experience a little more challenging at least initially.

I had a PD tell me that the vague answer is that it really depends on your overall picture and profile, as some of the other posters have outlined here. I would say that its likely that most PD would definitely say no to one extreme over another, and the important part is to identify your areas for improvement in your applicant profile and target them for improvement.