Explaining CRNA job description to others

stanman1968 · Dec 29, 2008

yes, but nothing to be done at this time just suck it up, hell I had one think I was a Certified Registered Nursing Assistant LOL.

Icare4all · Dec 29, 2008

yes, but nothing to be done at this time just suck it up, hell I had one think I was a Certified Registered Nursing Assistant LOL.

Thanks a lot. That is a good one. I really feel better now. LOL

RedCell · Dec 29, 2008

Hi all,
During the Holiday seaons, I have been to a few parties. It seems like everyone that I talked to about my schooling doesn't know what I am talking about. I have to explain exactly what a nurse anesthetist does. Some think it is being an OR nurse or an assistant to an anesthesiologist or recovery nurse. Many of them do know exactly what It is. I just want to know if I am the only one with that problem. I am starting CRNA school in less than a month and I am moving to another state. That is why all these questions and explanations come into place. CRNAs have been around for a long long long time. Even some nurses don't even know what a CRNA is. Please let me know.

Dude, I know how you feel. I've been married for 5 years. Both the wife and I are nurses (met in college). I wanted to be a CRNA. So I worked hard, saved money, made sure the wife was on birth control and went to CRNA school. Most of my family (mom a nurse, dad a military dude turned drug salesman) at least had some clue that this might be kind of hard to do and were supportive. Her family for the most part were supportive as well, except for the grandma. This lady can not fathom how her granddaughter graduated nursing school in 4 years and how I, after all this time am still in school to be a nurse? She actually asked the wife why I quit working as an orderly to go back to school to become an orderly all over again (I do not think she knows that there are male nurses). Now that I have graduated, she cannot understand why I am not working yet and "what are these boards you have to take.... you need to get a job now?" Everytime I explain to her what it is I will be doing she says, "so you are going to help the anesthesia doctor....why don't you go to nursing school?" My standard response of I will be the one doing the anesthesia and that I don't even need an anesthesiologist to work with me or even in the same building seems to fall on deaf ears.

Bottom line, I didn't graduate from CRNA school to impress others. I did it because it is the coolest job in the world for me, almost topping shooting defenseless animals in the woods. Many people have no clue what the hell a CRNA is. Most of the nurses here on this website do not know what a CRNA is or what they can do based on the posts I have read. That is okay with me. So does the grandma bug me? Yeah sometimes, but I find comfort in knowing that it was a male CRNA who provided the anesthesia during her last hip replacement (she still thinks it was a physician). The best part about Old Woman Rivers is that she lives a few states away and I only have to smell the incontinence once a year, at Christmas. That makes her tolerable for me.

putmetosleep · Dec 30, 2008

This is hilarious!!!
I've run into this same situation SO many times, it can definitely be frustrating, but just as the previous poster said, I'm doing this for me and it doesn't really matter if other people understand what I will be doing or not. But it would be nice!! I don't know how many times I've tried to explain the CRNA role to my husband's family:)