High School Student Looking for Input on CRNA's

Karla,

Go to the AANA web site (American Association of Nurse Anesthetists) aana.com . They are the best resource for career information. I am an old CRNA with over 45 years of active clinical practice experience and don't have much information on the current educational requirements. I can tell you that it is a wonderful profession where you can make a patient's surgical experience comfortable, where every case/patient is different, where continuing learing is required and where you will be part of one of the most outstanding and respected professional groups in the country.

Karla, I am interested in how you know about CRNAs and what made you be interested in the profession. We do suffer from some PR issues, so it is always of interest to me about how the word is getting out about us. Also, what is it about the profession that interest you? Hopefully, it is more than money, because we earn every penny we make.

You may be interested to know that President Clinton's mother was a CRNA and that in the book she wrote, she explained about her motivations to become a CRNA. Also, the father of one of the founders of eBay is a CRNA in Idaho.

I don't think it is proper to ask someone their salary. If you want to know information about income, look at some of the websites where jobs are offered.

Good luck.

Yoga CRNA

CRNA FAQ:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26690

Hi, http://www.gaswork.com gives an idea of the salary range.

I am in CRNA student now and have the information you seek.... I would be willing to talk to you over email or the phone.... I would love to have the oppurtunity to promote this wonderful career.... If this is of interest to you PM me with your email and questions I will answer to the best I can..... You are smart to get this information now and direct your college life towards this goal.... If you decide not to PM, good luck and find someone who can give you direction in this career it will save you alot of time and fraustration....

Gasgiver out

I am in CRNA student now and have the information you seek.... I would be willing to talk to you over email or the phone.... I would love to have the oppurtunity to promote this wonderful career.... If this is of interest to you PM me with your email and questions I will answer to the best I can..... You are smart to get this information now and direct your college life towards this goal.... If you decide not to PM, good luck and find someone who can give you direction in this career it will save you alot of time and fraustration....

Gasgiver out

Thank you sooo much for your willingness to help me. I have so many little questions and it seems like everywhere i have looked on the internet i never get the same answer twice. I guess i was originally looking into becomeing a heart surgeon. I've wanted to do that for quite some time, but then i started looking up information on them and the more info i got on them the more it pushed me away from the career. So i was talking to a good friend of my mom and she suggested getting information on CRNA's and looking into that career. So i have been and so far from the information i've got....i like it.

I guess the first question i have for you is....what would a typical day be for a CRNA? Do they have set hours?...or are they on call all the time? Also...what do i all need to do in college. Such as do i need to go and get my RN and then go on from there or do i have to have a Master's in Nursing? Because right now i'm looking at colleges and a major factor on my decision is going to be what kinda of nursing program they offer.

I guess i'm just going to start with those few questions. If you could help me out with them that would be wonderful! I really appreciate what your doing for me...and if you can answer the questions it is going to help me out soo much! Thanks again!! :)

My email address is [email protected]

Karla,

Today was a typical Wednesday for me as a CRNA in office practice. It really started with yesterday when I called each patient for today and got a brief history and explained about their anesthetic.

This morning I gave anesthesia for 8 patients having cataract surgery. There were several challenging cases--one lady weighed 400 pounds and one was severely hypertensive. The anesthesia for those cases was topical lidocaine with very light sedation. Two patients had parabulbar blocks. I always hold their hand and talk to them quietly during the surgery. The biggest problem of the morning was insisting that the operating room be warmer, because elderly patients are very cold sensitive.

Then I ate my lunch in my car while I drove to the plastic surgery office where I did anesthesia for a patient having a liposuction and abdominoplasty. It was a general anesthetic that was uneventful, even though the patient is a prominent attorney.

After that I did a sciatic nerve block on one of the surgeons who could barely walk because of severe spasm. It worked and I am his new best friend.

Came home, put my cases on the computer, sent my insurance billing slips to the billing service and called tomorrow's patients. it was a long day, I did well financially (but I will have to wait about 3 months to receive the insurance money), practiced my yoga and read a chapter in a new novel.

Those in hospital practices would have an entirely different type day.

I hope this gives you some perspective.

Yoga CRNA

Karla, I want to say that I think it is wonderful that you are interested and motivated to learn more about this career. These are qualities (along with many others) that will help you achieve your goal of becoming a CRNA. My advice is dont count your chickens before they hatch-meaning while it is great you want to learn more about being a CRNA, you first need to learn about nursing and acutally get your BSN. Becoming an RN is a challenge in itself. These are years you wont want to take for granted. They will serve as the base of your clinical experience. One thing you could do is to find a mentorship program that will allow you to follow a nurse around for a day. See if you like nursing first before you decide to be a CRNA. You really need to know what your drive to be a CRNA is-money, nursing status, education? In my opinion the people who choose this career based on money are in the wrong profession-you have peoples lives in your hands everyday. Also remember that you are looking at at least 5-6 years before entering into a CRNA program (must get BSN and have Critical Care experience first). While working to achieve your goals remember to enjoy these years of your life. Good luck and Feel free to respond.

Williams RN,

Thank you very much for the information you were willing to give me. I think that this career would be one that i would enjoy very much because i love helping people out. Right now i am a CNA and work in a nursing home in my town and enjoy working with the older people very much. They have really taught me a lot about myself, and overall i have changed very much as a person because i tend not to take as much for granted and also treat people a lot better and have more respect for people of all age groups than what i had before i had that job. I do realize that i will have quite a few years of schooling but i am def. up for that challenge. So thank you very much for all your help. If you happen to think of anything else anytime feel free to reply! Thanks again!!

Karla

Karla, I want to say that I think it is wonderful that you are interested and motivated to learn more about this career. These are qualities (along with many others) that will help you achieve your goal of becoming a CRNA. My advice is dont count your chickens before they hatch-meaning while it is great you want to learn more about being a CRNA, you first need to learn about nursing and acutally get your BSN. Becoming an RN is a challenge in itself. These are years you wont want to take for granted. They will serve as the base of your clinical experience. One thing you could do is to find a mentorship program that will allow you to follow a nurse around for a day. See if you like nursing first before you decide to be a CRNA. You really need to know what your drive to be a CRNA is-money, nursing status, education? In my opinion the people who choose this career based on money are in the wrong profession-you have peoples lives in your hands everyday. Also remember that you are looking at at least 5-6 years before entering into a CRNA program (must get BSN and have Critical Care experience first). While working to achieve your goals remember to enjoy these years of your life. Good luck and Feel free to respond.

I think this will help. Just the basics. I am a CRNA student, so I can't give you the "day in the life of a CRNA" story, but I can tell you how to get there.

First you need to get a Bachelors degree in Nursing (BSN-a 4 year college degree). When you get into the school of your choice you will declare Nursing as your major. Your grades during this time in school will have a major impact on whether or not you get into CRNA school. Especially your math and science grades, very important to get all A's and B's to be competitive for admission (I'm telling you this because, knowing right out of high school that you want to be a CRNA gives you the advantage of not having to go back and retake classes that you screwed up in during your undergrad years).

After obtaining your BSN you will need to pass the NCLEX and start work as an RN in an Intensive Care Unit (you must have at least 1 year of critical care experience, but most applicants have more, it will depend on the school you want to go to as to what is deemed "critical care").

Then, start applying! Most CRNA programs are a little over 2 years. It's very competitive, so don't get discouraged. The best thing for you to do right now, is to realize that you want to take your education to a master's level and for that, your undergrad grades must be really good. So enjoy college, but always keep it in the back of your head that these grades will greatly impact your future plans (something I didn't realize back then and wish that I had!!!). And I agree that you should shadow both an RN and a CRNA before making your decision, because once you start nursing school it will be 7-8 years at the least before you are a CRNA (4 years undergrad, 1-2 years at the least of ICU experience and then a little over 2 years of CRNA school). It's a long road, but well worth it!!!

Good Luck!!!!

i was scrolling through some random posts and just happened to come across this one. i think i needed to post my quick response.

I don't think it is proper to ask someone their salary.

firstly, she didn't personally ask you a damn thing. she asked what a general salary was, so quit bitchin' at her like your her mother. secondly, most people know the range of a CRNA - which is usually between 130k-160k, so why the hell do you think anyone cares your exact dollar amount in earnings? seriously, if you make 145k annually, guess what? so does about 75% of CRNAs in existence! you think you're that significant that your particular salary is important to every forum reader out there? i'll say it for the first time if you think that - get over yourself.

Hopefully, it is more than money, because we earn every penny we make.

more importantly, i came across this pompous, absolutely assanine statement. i've been around some pretty arrogant people, but i think this is one of the most ridiculous and selfish things i've ever heard someone say. to prove my point: do you realize how much money you actually make? i don't know exactly because if i did know you would obviously spontaneously combust, but you probably literally make about 4 times as much as the average person. now, to make you look like a fool, i'll ask - do you think every average person out there doesn't work as hard as you? well you surely implied that!

your statement insinuated that no one works harder than you, and i can guarantee you that some people are working 10 times harder than you and earning 1/10th of what you make in a year. if you earn what you work for, then clearly you are either working harder than anyone else that makes less (or equal) than you, or everyone that works as hard as you is making at least as much as you. this statement, in and of itself, is absolutely ludacris, and in turn, shows that you have close to no sense at all, or a head bigger than a hot-air balloon.

you seriously need to grow up, i don't care how old you are. and i'm sorry, but i had to bring this thread back from the dead. i work with nurses all day, everyday, and i can assure you most of them don't even come close to work as hard as some people i know. in addition, most of the nurses i'm around spend their time in the ICU/ER and have a harder time than a CRNA does working, and they make a fraction of the money that CRNAs do. and i also put up with hearing some pretty ridiculous stuff from these nurses, too, but this probably tops everything i've ever heard. i can't wait to turn on the tonight show when brad pitt claims, "i earn every penny i make, which is roughly $31 million dollars a movie."

Hey Kiteman, I don't know what you do for a living, but get back to us when you've put in 45 years of practice with people's lives in your hands. I'd love to see you sweat when someone's airway is gone and everyone looks to you to get a tube down their throat to save their life. Or when their blood pressure bottoms out to a level that is incompatible with life and YOU are the person who has to decide, within seconds, what drug to give to save them. Seriously, who are you to "put someone in their place" You do your job and we'll stick to ours. Are you a CRNA?? Obviously not or you would NEVER criticize an older, most intelligent practictioner who was just giving insight to a young person trying to decide what they want to do with their life. You need to go back and read that post again with a little less preconcieved bias.

Hey Kiteman, I don't know what you do for a living, but get back to us when you've put in 45 years of practice with people's lives in your hands. I'd love to see you sweat when someone's airway is gone and everyone looks to you to get a tube down their throat to save their life. Or when their blood pressure bottoms out to a level that is incompatible with life and YOU are the person who has to decide, within seconds, what drug to give to save them. Seriously, who are you to "put someone in their place" You do your job and we'll stick to ours. Are you a CRNA?? Obviously not or you would NEVER criticize an older, most intelligent practictioner who was just giving insight to a young person trying to decide what they want to do with their life. You need to go back and read that post again with a little less preconcieved bias.

WOW you've got some balls. why don't you work for the SWAT, make 40k a year, and put your life on the line every day while being in charge of saving other's lives. it doesn't matter if your patient dies or not, you still get 145k a year. i think you should take a step back and realize just how silly YOU sound. i only hope your ass gets sued for malpractice when you make that mistake, and you lose your job. i'm not saying i wish that of any CRNA, i'm just saying that comparative to someone in the SWAT possibly losing their life to save another's life, i think at the least you would deserve to lose your CRNA license if you were to kill a patient with your practice. i mean really, have you ever thought about that? someone in a 145k risk-free job environment does not equal someone in a 40k complete-risk job.