CVICU Depleted of staff to CRNA school

NA2BE · May 21, 2008

I think this can be problem at many ICUs in large teaching hospitals. From a program director's point of view, they just want the best candidates they can get. I highly doubt they put any thought into keeping someone out of their program because they are worried about depleting an ICU's staff. As for Nurse Managers keeping staff on the unit and out of CRNA school, I have the perfect solution. Don't hire anyone with a GPA above 3.0. This will keep your staff from running off to CRNA school since they are less likely to get in. If they still really want to go to school, they will have to at least spend a few years improving grades, getting experience, and getting every certification under the sun to make up for the sub-par GPA.

brazuca · May 22, 2008

Smiley, I work in the CVICU and its a well known fact to management that we are only there for the experience in order to apply to CRNA school. Other ICU's also get their share of CRNA applicants an acceptances but looking at the practice survey one institution gave me to fill out for the Anesthesia school application and can surely see why. Most objectives in the sheet were things I did daily in the CVICU. Swans, vasoactive drips (neo, epi, nitro, levo, dopa, etc) neuromuscular blockade drips (Nimbex) I was able to preety much fill out that I utilized these drips on a daily basis or atleast twice a week, except for nimbex, thats mostly monthly. The fact is our unit looses 5-10 nurses a year to CRNA school. Unlike any other unit in the hospital. Almost all newbies that come in... have anesthesia in their mind.

nurseabc123 · May 22, 2008

I was talking with a half dozen ICU RNs this weekend after work and we discussed how Duke's CTICUs lose like 20+ RNs a year to CRNA school. I get the feeling that most of the RNs go there to get into school and would go to any ICU as long as they knew they could get into school. I wonder what other people's thoughts are about this topic and if they think schools should consider how many RNs they should accept from one ICU.
-Smiley

We lose about 15-20/year as well to CRNA school, in addition to those that leave for NP positions, management, PACU/EP Lab/Cath Lab. We lose about a 1/3 of our staff.

RN1980 · May 22, 2008

i really don't think crna programs really give a hoot if they'er pulling nurses out of the units in order to teach them anesthesia. they are not responsible for the recruiting and staffing of hospital units. we have 1-2 persons leave our rinky dink unit every year going off to some crna program, and at times the schedual looks like crap cause of the departures. but as far as crna schools care, why should they...it is'nt like they drafted the unit nurses into the anesthesia program.

armynse · May 22, 2008

I've worked on critical care units where it was routine to lose 5-10 nurses to anesthesia school each year. I've always believed that the number of nurses gaining acceptance to CRNA school spoke volumes about the quality of nursing experience gained at said facilities. After all, individual nursing experience is weighted heavily when adcoms are deciding who they want in their programs. It's probably easier to get into CRNA school if you are coming from well known critical care units as opposed to coming from a rural hospital where you probably saw acutely ill patients once or twice a year.

Army:twocents:

ready4crna? · May 23, 2008

The units that lose a high portion of staff to advanced practice nursing (all types) are probably the same units that have awesome outcomes and attract the most motivated to learn. These environments are the breeding/proving grounds for the best nursing has to offer (Including those who stay). I know it is tough on the managers. But I really think the standard of care would suffer on these respective units if they did not hire these types of people.

Summitk2 · May 25, 2008

I think it's really a money problem, not a staffing problem. It costs a lot of money to train a new nurse to ICU. As long as there are anesthesia schools and demand for CRNAs, the staffing in these units will be fine. I think there's a benefit to both sides: the hospital wants bright, motivated nurses who provide quality (and cost-efficient) care. The nurse wants ICU exposure as a means to get into anesthesia school. As long as both sides feel the situation is agreeable, it's all good. I believe this is why you see many ICUs requiring a certain time commitment to see that they get their fair share. I don't think the anesthesia school owes anyone anything.

I'm in the Northwest, and CRNA practice hasn't grown here like it has in much of the country. I've only seen 1 coworker go off to anesthesia school in my 18 months in our unit (a private hospital, which is another factor). I'm sure this will increase as the popularity of CRNAs rises up here.

Summitk2

SoReady4CRNA · May 26, 2008

Smiley I have an off topic question for you. Do you know of anyone in your class that has been accepted from High Point Regional Hospital??

Thanks,

Future