Having school paid for

The hsopital I work at will provide a stipend while you go to school if you agree to work for a certain amount of time. It is about 1000 -1100 dollars a month and is taxed. I am not sure it is worth it in the long run, because it removes control from you and puts it in their hands. Many places offer sign on bonuses or tuition reimbursement. As for me, I would rather be able to negotiate salary and benefits on my own terms than be held by a contract. Just my opinion. And no, I won't accept the stipend.

The Army Reserves pays a stipend in exchange for some time after school (I forget how much)...deployments for CRNA's in the reserves are generally limited to 90 days. Just a thought.

May

Some current SRNAs I have spoken with said that they have been approached by many anesthesia groups from very early in their anesthesia program and had offers for tuition payment and stipend in exchange for a work commitment after graduation. It seemed that a large number of students signed such contracts to help with the financial burden.

Some students also said that for students who held out and did not sign such contracts, there were often substantial signing bonuses after graduation, I heard one place that gave $50,000 signing bonuses for a 3 year work commitment.

Most students recommended waiting until you've found an area within anesthesia practice that you know you'll like before signing with anyone. For example, why sign early on with an anesthesia group that does only bread-n-butter cases, only to realize later that you really enjoy doing cardiac cases which you can only do within a different practice?

Many of the practices that make these work commitment offers also serve as clinical sites for students, so the SRNAs also recommended waiting until you've had a chance to rotate through the sites for school clinicals so that you'd have a chance to know how you feel about them.

Hope this helps!

Adonai

thank you!

The hospital that I have worked at since ADN school is paying for all of my tuition books and fees. They amount up to around $60,000. I have to work there for 5 years. However, I was hoping to get a job there anyway. Several of my friends work there as CRNAs and claim that it is a great place to work. My contract has a clause in it that states that if they don't have a job for me when I get out of school, I am free to go without owing them a dime.

I have yet another scenario that a friend of mine did. He took a stipend with a group while in school which paid him $1000 a month to work for 2 years post grad. However, after graduation he was offered a job at a much higher salary with better hours and a big signing bonus. So he took part of that bonus, paid the contracted stipened back and took the better job.

I would also suggest to make sure you don't plan your finances while in school to be dependent on a stipend. That way you can drop it if need be without burdening yourself further than you have to.

The SRNA's I met also spoke about the situation that ShandsburnRN wrote about. They said that it reflects poorly on your school when you essentially renege on your contract you've signed to work for them after graduation. Many of the facilities that offer students stipends or tuition assistance in exchange for work commitments also serve as clinical sites for the students while they are in the program. As a student, I think it would be best to respect that the facility has a relationship with our school that we want to support and respect, and be very certain that we want to work there if we sign a contract in advance of graduation.

Adonai

I have yet another scenario that a friend of mine did. He took a stipend with a group while in school which paid him $1000 a month to work for 2 years post grad. However, after graduation he was offered a job at a much higher salary with better hours and a big signing bonus. So he took part of that bonus, paid the contracted stipened back and took the better job.

I would also suggest to make sure you don't plan your finances while in school to be dependent on a stipend. That way you can drop it if need be without burdening yourself further than you have to.