FNP-CRNA

[kevinm23]

Hi,

I need some advice from my fellow nurses. I am a new FNP graduate and I am thinking of becoming a CRNA. A little about myself I recently graduated from a rigorous brick/mortar school with BSN/MSN with an FNP degree with no bedside experience. Before you jump on the bandwagon and rebuke me for not having RN experience let me explain myself I always wanted to become an FNP so I forgo my bedside experience to pursue this dream. In addition, I am a HRSA scholar so I was unable to stop my MSN degree since I received a scholarship that helped fund my schooling. Towards the end of my FNP program, I started to have these thoughts of pursuing my CRNA but I knew I had to go back to being a bedside nurse. The problem is that since I don't have any bedside experience I am afraid that no hospitals will hire me. What should I do to make myself more marketable? 

[londonflo]

4 minutes ago, subee said:

EVERYBODY thinks the program they went to was rigorous. 

Do you actually have an RN license in hand?

Having worked with 3 faculty who went to online colleges and did not get tenure for very obvious reasons......I think you need to get an RN job, do the RN job for several years and re evaluate what you know and don't know.

[NurseNelly24, BSN]

To answer your question and allude to the sentiment of the other commenters, you absolutely do need BEDSIDE RN experience in order to qualify for any CRNA programs.

By reading your 1st post, I’m assuming that you’re wondering if your EVENTUAL(since you don’t have it yet) FNP experience will suffice as qualifiable experience? 
 

It won’t. 1. You’ll only qualify for NP positions in primary care/outpatient areas (the most acute would probably be the ER) 2. It still doesn’t expose you to the hemodynamics, med management of vasosctive/sedatives, and the overall skill set required to care for critically ill patients. 

So if you’re considering CRNA, you’ll have to start from scratch with ICU RN experience, and sacrifice becoming an expert in the area you we’re educated in (NP in primary/outpatient practice). If you decide just stick with FNP, you’re losing the opportunity to be a competent ICU nurse. Either way to be a novice—> expert in BOTH areas is very rare and a waste of time to some capacity. 

Not your fault, but I think this is the flaw of many Direct Entry program-NP pathways. Students are only exposed to one “type” of track that they’ve decided is their “desired area”, until you graduate and you’re either questioning your choice or dismayed by the track altogether.
 

You should definitely do more research about CRNA before you dive in, because most people who apply to these programs have had their mind set to enter this area years before, and have put in the work necessary to pursue it. 

[valandria75, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, NP]

You can actually do both, plenty of nurses work as nurse practitioners and bedside nurses.  During my tenure at Duke Hospital there were plenty of nurses that could not find a job as nurse practitioners, there were also some that worked as both.  Doing both affords you the opportunity to gain bedside experience, if you can get into an ICU you have killed two birds with one stone.  

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

To me, the main takeaway from this forum is that it's unproductive for direct NP programs to allow students to commit to professional roles that they have limited exposure to. One of the main benefits to PA programs is that they don't limit their graduates to a specific area of practice, so as the students can discern their interests as they go through the program (vs. pre-selecting them). In my experience, what I thought I wanted when I graduated nursing school has been vastly different from what I actually ended up enjoying.

1 hour ago, valandria75 said:

You can actually do both, plenty of nurses work as nurse practitioners and bedside nurses.  During my tenure at Duke Hospital there were plenty of nurses that could not find a job as nurse practitioners, there were also some that worked as both.  Doing both affords you the opportunity to gain bedside experience, if you can get into an ICU you have killed two birds with one stone.  

I think the main difference is that the people who practice in both roles already have previous experience in one of the roles; like you said, they start out with bedside RN experience, and then pursue NP work. It's way easier to maintain a full-time role and a separate PRN role when you already have experience in the PRN role. 

The OP comes to the table without any experience. They'd pretty much have to start a full-time NP job, do it for at least a few years until they're competent to drop it down to PRN status, then continue to pick up NP shifts while they start a full-time ICU RN job. Not only does that sound completely exhausting (especially since ICU can be so draining), but it doesn't seem like it would make the applicant a better candidate? I don't really see it as killing two birds with one stone.

[valandria75, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, NP]

Maybe abs maybe not the beauty of nursing is as a floor nurse they OP can work weekends abs devote the week to working as a nurse practitioner.  I’m not the authority on nursing, nor do I know the OP’s daily schedule, however I can’t see getting the advanced degree and waiting to use it, especially considering nursing is very flexible and the two can be done simultaneously, I’ve witnessed other nurses fresh out of school doing it.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

4 hours ago, valandria75 said:

You can actually do both, plenty of nurses work as nurse practitioners and bedside nurses.  During my tenure at Duke Hospital there were plenty of nurses that could not find a job as nurse practitioners, there were also some that worked as both.  Doing both affords you the opportunity to gain bedside experience, if you can get into an ICU you have killed two birds with one stone.  

FNP's generally cannot work an an NP in ICU if the OP wants to get the ICU experience she would need to apply to CRNA school.