Adrenaline Junkie

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi! I'm a new PCT but I've been a CNA in a nursing home for about three years now. I just had three interviews at Mercy Clinic, one for Telemetry/Med Surg, the second for Orthopedics, and the last one for Telemetry/Heart Failure. I really want to work in an ER or ICU setting so I can get familiar with it right off the bat. My goal is to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthnetisit (CRNA). I'm looking for something that requires you to be on your toes, confident with all your skills, fast paced, and challenging. I was wondering if anyone knows if a specific unit really helped prior to being in the CRNA program?

Hi! I'm a new PCT but I've been a CNA in a nursing home for about three years now. I just had three interviews at Mercy Clinic, one for Telemetry/Med Surg, the second for Orthopedics, and the last one for Telemetry/Heart Failure. I really want to work in an ER or ICU setting so I can get familiar with it right off the bat. My goal is to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthnetisit (CRNA). I'm looking for something that requires you to be on your toes, confident with all your skills, fast paced, and challenging. I was wondering if anyone knows if a specific unit really helped prior to being in the CRNA program?

As far as I know, most (if not all) CRNA programs require you to have at least one or two years of ICU experience before applying. Most of the CRNAs I work with had at least 4 or 5 years of ICU before they felt confident about getting started in CRNA school. I would check with the CRNA schools in your state to see if they would accept ER experience rather than ICU. There is also a forum here on AN just for CRNA students.

Good luck.

ETA: I just realized you are a PCT, so that experience wouldn't count in terms of CRNA school requirements regardless of whether you work ER or ICU. If you are still in the process of deciding what area you eventually want to work in, there is no harm in trying ER vs. ICU to get a glimpse into that world. But eventually, you will need a couple of years experience as a registered nurse in an ICU setting before you can be accepted to CRNA school.

My goal is to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthnetisit (CRNA). I'm looking for something that requires you to be on your toes, confident with all your skills, fast paced, and challenging.

While working as a nurse anesthetist can certainly be challenging and you absolutely have to be confident about your skills and have the ability to interpret the significance of various symptoms/signs and initiate the appropriate action, I wouldn't call the average shift fast paced. I get my adrenaline fix by parachuting and rock climbing :)

In my opinion anesthesia is 99.5% boredom/routine and 0.5% sheer terror ;) Surgeries can go on for many hours and you need to get comfortable and kind of settle in for the long haul while keeping a watchful eye out for subtle changes in your patient that may be the first sign of a developing problem, while keeping an eye on what the surgeon/s is/are doing so you can adjust accordingly.

I had experience in the ER and as a PACU nurse before starting school for my current specialty. I found both useful and both, but particularly PACU, were considered relevant experience when I sent in my application. ICU experience would also be considered valuable. I'm not in the US so the necessary background to make you eligible for anesthesia school may differ.

I think that you first need to become a nurse and work as one for several years before being ready to progress to anesthesia. Working as a PCT will likely offer you some insight into a nurses' role, but in my opinion it's not until you actually work as one that you'll truly develop your "Clinical Eye".

As I mentioned I used to work in the ER and while there are some adrenaline moments, a lot of the work is mundane, humdrum in nature. Not all cases are traumas and at least in my neck of the woods they're not where one starts out as a new/recent graduate.

I'm not trying to discourage you, simply encouraging you to find out if the specialties really are what you picture them to be. Perhaps you could shadow a CRNA sometime in the future to see for yourself what a typical shift looks like.

Good luck!

I know I have to have my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and work at least a year as a BSN in an ICU setting. I'm just trying to get into the unit that will be best for becoming a CRNA now so I can be there and be comfortable before I get my BSN.

Specializes in CCRN.

Just a heads up, but getting into a unit as a PCT does not guarantee you will get to stay there as a RN. Good luck!

Specializes in Oncology.

The nurses the frequently have exciting shifts in the ICU are the nurses that are scary to work with. Yes, there are times when you'll have a very unstable patient and emergencies, but much of it is dressing changes, suctioning, oral care, turning and positioning, drawing labs, skin care, charting, loads of assessing, and nudging up drips a smidge here and lowering it a touch there.

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