Help!!! My Interview For The Anesthesia Program Is In 1 Week. Any Last Minute Tips?

Nitecap · Mar 21, 2005

Where are you interviewing? I have a study guide that I found pretty handy to use for CRNA interviews. Here are a few questions that were asked at the 3 interviews i attended.

-Describe dif. b/t 1st, 2nd degreee type 1 and 2 and 3rd degreee hrt blcks.

-Which ones will atropine work on

-Know strips - afib, v tach/fib blcks and treatments.

-Interpret ABG and give treatment eg. CO2 55, PH 7.20, Po2 wnl, HCO3 wnl, bicarb wnl or slightly elevated so increase rate to 12 from 10 ect.

-Know what your vasoactive drips, what they do, how they work, side effects, when to use.

-know acls protocols ect.

-Formula for SVR i missed this one

-Do you use atropine on pt with hrt Transplant - no b/c hrt denervated so pace, then why can HR increase with exersize - epi released from adrenal medulla not dependent on nerves.

others:

-Why CRNA, why get out of bedside nursing- 2 words Poo poo LOL

-what can you bring to the table to improve program, profession ect.

-How your going to pay for school - loans ect.

-Be honest: They may ask explain a mistake you once made and what you learned from it.

-Last time you had confrontation with MD and how you smoothed it over

-What you do for fun or to relieve stress, what are your hobbies

other tips that will impress interview board.

-be farmiliar with current CRNA/MDA/AA political issues, search on this board, AANA.com or studentdoctor.net Anesthesia forum, at least bring your farmiliararity with this up, they all ate this up

-Talk about any sedation/paralytics/pain med infusions you use in ICU eg. we may use nimbex, fent, ativan drips to sedate, talk about this but know it well because they will pimp you off of this.

-Talk up your experience as much as possible even if it's not the best.

- If you havent taken CCRN register for exam now and tell them you will take it asap when get paper work back, its not a bad test if you study.

-Talk about any epidural experience you have in ICU if any, we use them for thoracotomys and AAA's/Taaa's and titrate them to SE /pain mgmt, they will like that you have used them if you have

-My grades were not great before nursing school but improved once in nursing school so you may have to explain

The last and most important thing is be very CONFIDENT. CONFIDENCE i believe is the key. Yes sir/mam if the people are way older than you as in my case. Always Eye contact, firm hand shake, thank you at end.

- If you dont know the answere to a clinical question just say I'm not sure, and maybe say if you are farmiliar with it but not sure exact answer, thats what they want you to say. They dont want you to guess or BS.

- of course you will be nervous but try to chill, be as prepared as possible and that will decrease your nervousness

-have somewhat of an opening statment prepared talking up your strengths such as grades, GRE, clinical exp, professional org, or extra curriculars you were involved in in past.

-have a list of questions to ask them such as:

Support for students?

Clinical Sites?

Minimun or average Epidurals, aline, Cent line placements by last grad class?

Pass rates on cert exam?

Artrition rates?

SIM labs?

Average # OR hours last grad classes had?

Average # peds/thoracic cases grad classes had?

Competition with residents or AA students for cases if affilated with other programs?

good luck, email me with any questions or post here.

lifeLONGstudent · Mar 22, 2005

Thanks Nitecap for the in-depth answer! I printed this and put it in my file for when my time comes.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2005

I just wanted to wish you the best of luck. :balloons:

NEE-NEE GIRL · Mar 22, 2005

Where are you interviewing? I have a study guide that I found pretty handy to use for CRNA interviews. Here are a few questions that were asked at the 3 interviews i attended.
-Describe dif. b/t 1st, 2nd degreee type 1 and 2 and 3rd degreee hrt blcks.
-Which ones will atropine work on
-Know strips - afib, v tach/fib blcks and treatments.
-Interpret ABG and give treatment eg. CO2 55, PH 7.20, Po2 wnl, HCO3 wnl, bicarb wnl or slightly elevated so increase rate to 12 from 10 ect.
-Know what your vasoactive drips, what they do, how they work, side effects, when to use.
-know acls protocols ect.
-Formula for SVR i missed this one
-Do you use atropine on pt with hrt Transplant - no b/c hrt denervated so pace, then why can HR increase with exersize - epi released from adrenal medulla not dependent on nerves.
others:
-Why CRNA, why get out of bedside nursing- 2 words Poo poo LOL
-what can you bring to the table to improve program, profession ect.
-How your going to pay for school - loans ect.
-Be honest: They may ask explain a mistake you once made and what you learned from it.
-Last time you had confrontation with MD and how you smoothed it over
-What you do for fun or to relieve stress, what are your hobbies
other tips that will impress interview board.
-be farmiliar with current CRNA/MDA/AA political issues, search on this board, AANA.com or studentdoctor.net Anesthesia forum, at least bring your farmiliararity with this up, they all ate this up
-Talk about any sedation/paralytics/pain med infusions you use in ICU eg. we may use nimbex, fent, ativan drips to sedate, talk about this but know it well because they will pimp you off of this.
-Talk up your experience as much as possible even if it's not the best.
- If you havent taken CCRN register for exam now and tell them you will take it asap when get paper work back, its not a bad test if you study.
-Talk about any epidural experience you have in ICU if any, we use them for thoracotomys and AAA's/Taaa's and titrate them to SE /pain mgmt, they will like that you have used them if you have
-My grades were not great before nursing school but improved once in nursing school so you may have to explain
The last and most important thing is be very CONFIDENT. CONFIDENCE i believe is the key. Yes sir/mam if the people are way older than you as in my case. Always Eye contact, firm hand shake, thank you at end.
- If you dont know the answere to a clinical question just say I'm not sure, and maybe say if you are farmiliar with it but not sure exact answer, thats what they want you to say. They dont want you to guess or BS.
- of course you will be nervous but try to chill, be as prepared as possible and that will decrease your nervousness
-have somewhat of an opening statment prepared talking up your strengths such as grades, GRE, clinical exp, professional org, or extra curriculars you were involved in in past.
-have a list of questions to ask them such as:
Support for students?
Clinical Sites?
Minimun or average Epidurals, aline, Cent line placements by last grad class?
Pass rates on cert exam?
Artrition rates?
SIM labs?
Average # OR hours last grad classes had?
Average # peds/thoracic cases grad classes had?
Competition with residents or AA students for cases if affilated with other programs?
good luck, email me with any questions or post here.

Thanks for the speedy answer NiteCap. I really appreciate it! I'll be printing that out tonight, and using it to prepare. Which program are you going to attend? and good luck to you. Oh - the school I'm interviewing for is Texas Wesleyan Univ. I interview on the 29th. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh can you hook me up with the name of your study guide? Again thanks for the info.

skipaway · Mar 22, 2005

-be farmiliar with current CRNA/MDA/AA political issues, search on this board, AANA.com or studentdoctor.net Anesthesia forum, at least bring your farmiliararity with this up, they all ate this up

Of course, be very careful here. There may be several MDAs on the interview committee. They may not identify themselves as such.

NEE-NEE GIRL · Mar 22, 2005

Of course, be very careful here. There may be several MDAs on the interview committee. They may not identify themselves as such.

Thanks, i didn't think of that.

Nitecap · Mar 23, 2005

TWU will not have MD's interviewing you so dont sweat it. I brought it up at the TWU interview and they like it. I got accepted but turned them down because they werent my first choice. Good luck if you prepare well you will do find, if not they will bombard you with questions.

TrainO4 · Nov 6, 2005

Nitecap, I just had to thank you for your posting on interview tips...you were so detailed and gave me a realistic idea of what a CRNA program will ask.

JESKRN · Nov 10, 2005

nite cap,

Thank you for the in depth reply. You helped out a lot of nervous people!!

starbucks24 · Nov 10, 2005

Cerilyn...I'm in New York too, and I wondered if you would let me know how your interviews go/went at SUNY Downstate, and Buffalo. You know there are only 4 schools in the state to chose from and Columbia is out of my price range. I'd like to know what your impressions were of the schools and which one you felt had a better program. Good Luck!!!

bj76302 · Nov 14, 2005

TWU will not have MD's interviewing you so dont sweat it. I brought it up at the TWU interview and they like it. I got accepted but turned them down because they werent my first choice. Good luck if you prepare well you will do find, if not they will bombard you with questions.

Nitecap- just wanted to tell you that i have been looking on the net for hints on interview techniques (oh for about 9 months now) and a week before my second interview i run across this website and see your advice. It's interesting because a CRNA that i've been talking with quizzed me on a few questions and one of them was regarding the heart transplant with atropine. She said they had asked her that question in her interview a 4 years ago. Only personal question i was asked is "why did you only apply to one program?" (versus TCU). Anyway, i've been carrying the CCRN book around with me for about 6 months now focusing on resp and cardiac. Wished i had been doing this the past 9 years of critical care nursing! Thanks for the interview tips.