EASY ADMISSION CRNA PROGRAMS not ICU advice!

AL bug · Sep 25, 2002

Most schools want a year of critical care experience. Some say that has to be ICU. Some will accept ER, PACU, and other units if you can convince them you are competent in the critical care areas(hemodynamics, pharm, etc.). If you have some experience in one of these other areas, then you can use that and apply to the schools that accept them. If not you have to go on your ICU experience.

Another consideration is that application deadlines for 8/03 are now or very soon. You can't apply to school before you graduate.

With that said, 8 months in any area ain't gonna get you in. We all understand that you want to start in Fall '03, but it can't happen. The fact is you don't graduate until 12/02. That's when you happen to have come into the system. So easy admission does not mean 8 months of experience in any program. Easy admission may be an option for 01/04 or 05/04, but not for 8/03.

MUSC-Charleston, SC starts in Jan. CAMC- Charleston, WV starts in May. There are others that I don't know right off hand.

We all understand the question and the answer is you are going to have to work in the ICU (if that's where you have a job already) for a full year.

TexasCRNA · Sep 25, 2002

Thats the question everyone wants to know, there are no easy schools. Getting in is only a small part of becoming a CRNA. School is hell and expensive no matter how you cut it. Lee

KC CHICK · Sep 25, 2002

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it....right?

I plan on starting the admission process in 2-3 years. I know it's gonna be tough, no matter where I go. Also, since I'm not going to travel a distance, I only have two options.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Anne

meandragonbrett · Sep 25, 2002

Why don't you visit http://www.anesthesia-nursing.com . There are links to all CRNA schools and you can find out about each schools admission process on your own, just like everybody else did. And if you look at your other thread, you'll see that Craig posted something about some school that's supposed to be easy to get into although, he stated that it's only a rumor. Being a CRNA is not easy, so what makes you think the application process and the schooling will be? It's serious stuff....You're keeping somebody alive!!

My $0.02

Brett

New CCU RN · Sep 26, 2002

I couldn't agree with you more meandragonbrett. I wish you AnnCRNA luck and understand your enthusiasm to get going with CRNA school, but your attitude about it is kind of scary. I don't think I would want my CRNA to be the one whose priority for chosing the school is "the easiest one to get in to". Really, there shouldn't be "easy ones" out there. Otherwise everyone would do it!!!! If you do a simple search on google or yahoo you can find tons of info about CRNA schools.

kmchugh · Sep 26, 2002

Reality check. Why do you want to be a CRNA, and what is the purpose of the question you have asked? I am also troubled by someone looking for "the easiest school."

First, it's going to depend on how you define "easy." Second, understand, it does not matter how easy or hard the school is, we all take the same boards at the end. And rest assured, boards are TOUGH. So, a school that was easy to get into and easy to get through might initially look good, the reality is that if its easy, you won't pass boards, and you won't be a safe practitioner.

As for selection of students from candidate pools, all the schools do it pretty much the same way (see thread on Becoming a CRNA from one who did). So, bottom line, all the schools teach pretty much the same thing, all the schools have pretty much the same selection criteria, and all the schools are the HARDEST FREAKIN THING YOU WILL EVER DO!

Since I have applied, been accepted, started the program, talked to students from several other programs, completed the program, and passed my boards, I am pretty much one who knows. The other folks here are somewhere in the same continuum, and they are aware of what's happening, too. Repeating a question, rudely, I might add, because you didn't like the first answer will get you no where.

Kevin McHugh, CRNA

smiling_ru · Sep 26, 2002

the simple answer is that no programs are easy to get into. :nono:

every person that interviews for a slot has a high gpa, a high gre, adequate acute care experience, and has done absolutely every thing they could to make themselves a competetive candidate. :idea:

in essence you are competing against those people for admission, no school is "easy" in those circumstances.

New CCU RN · Sep 26, 2002

Just wanted to say that I could not agree with you more kmchugh. Considering you can now say....been there, done that (which by the way is awesome, congrats!--hope to get there one day) your input is most valuable.

What is with the rudeness by the way....you aren't gonna get your way by repeating yourself in a rude manner. Not to mention the fact that non one wants to help someone who wont help themselves.

There is no "easy route" to being a CRNA...it is such a great profession/route to go with sooooo much responsibility there really shouldn't be any other way!!!!! That is what (in my opinion) makes it so interesting....your decisions are life and death...you are keeping that person alive....it better be damn hard!!!!

Just wondering "knowledge for knowledge's sake", what makes you so confident that 8 months out of nursing school provided that you pass the boards for RN which you wont be taking til at least two months after December, so even less than 8 months of experience is going to have you prepared to enter CRNA school? Good luck on the interview (if you can get one while still in school....) when they start asking you the explain Swan #'s, indications for Dopa and its mechanism for action, how to titrate, dosages and concentrations, as well as parasympathetic, sympathetic innervation and so on. If you already know all that....well, good for you. I am shocked.

My suggestion for you would be to relax a little, spend some quality time doing your own research and when you know a little more about CRNA school, the application process, requirements, what a CRNA does, your reason behind wanting to become one ask an intelligent question.....but right now you are just posting the same thing kind of like when a kid throws a tantrum.

New CCU RN · Sep 26, 2002

PS Perhaps you could call the Director of Admissions at each school and ask them if their school is "easy" to get into...I'm sure you will get great results.

meandragonbrett · Sep 26, 2002

HAHAHAHAH!!! Good one CCU RN. LOL!! I agree with everything kevin and CCU RN have said. Ann, listen to Kevin! He's very intelligent and knows what he's talking about. Personally I'm not planning on applying to anesthesia school until I have 2 years of time in the unit. That's just a personal decision. I feel like I'll be better prepared than if I was accepted after just a year of experience. Read through the old posts on this board and you'll get a lot of great information. Check out http://www.anesthesia-nursing.com as well. THEN come back and ask any questions and take the answer you GET, don't fish for the answer you WANT.

Brett

Roland · Sep 26, 2002

I too have been frustrated by the relative paucity of statistical information with regard to admission at CRNA schools espcially when such information is relatively easy to obtain for other professional schools. One thing to keep in mind is that ALL mainstream CRNA schools are accredidated by the same organization. Therefore, they will all have to meet esentially the same minimal standards (which are presumably adequate).

Having said that some schools probably ARE easier than others depending upon how you define the term. Thus, some schools may offer slightly more flexibility with regard to the scheduling of your clinicals, but might have a biochem professor than will make you pull your hair out (if you are more fortunate than I and still have some left). There probably ARE overall easier schools out there but its like pulling teeth to get that information. It is human nature for people to want others who follow in their foot steps to work at least as hard as did they to reach their goal. However as someone who had the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school if only for a year (MIT for one year before I ran out of money and joined the Navy), I can attest that the school with the "better" reputation is not always the best educator. At MIT the professors presumed that you were a genius and most made almost NO effort to explain even difficult concepts in understandable terms. It seemed like EVERY test question went BEYOND what was even presented in our texts. At my current school (a state University with a mediocre reputation) the resources to facilitate learning are exponentially greater. There are numerous supplemental instruction sections, and free tutors in almost any subject one could imagine. I learned more in three months at Ball State than I did in a whole year at MIT. My BSU "A's" might be less impressive than those I earned at MIT, but the knowledge gained is far more substantial not to mention personally satisfying.

Furthermore, just because one school is relatively easier doesn't mean that it is lacking or deficient. The soldiers who partook in the invasion of Normandy were all heros however the ones which drew the assignment of Sword or Juno beach almost certainly had an EASIER mission than those who landed at Omaha. Consider another analogy Delta Force is considered the most elite fighting force in the nation, if not the world. It is made up of THE BEST from other elite groups such as the Army's Green Berets, Navy SEAL's, and the Air Force's parajumpers. Many say that the toughest route to Delta is through the SEAL's while the easiest is through the Air Force's PJ program. Would someone be a coward, or otherwise lacking if having the goal of becoming a Delta team member they elected to join the Air Force and become a parajumper instead of joining the Navy and becoming a SEAL?

If people don't get at least a little angry or frustrated with you then you probably are not asking the right questions. Life is both a game and a war there IS information which can enhance your chances of success from a "game theory" perspective. However, obtaining that information is not always a simple matter.