How broad is your scope of practice as a CRNA?

[Joe NightingMale, MSN, RN]

Meaning, do you get the chance to practice a wide variety of nursing skills? Or is most of your time focused on anesthesia/pain relief?

[RedCell]

Meaning, do you get the chance to practice a wide variety of nursing skills? Or is most of your time focused on anesthesia/pain relief?

Just an SRNA here, but I can say that everything I do to a willing participant in the OR is a nursing skill. After I am a nurse, what other skills would I possess. Chicks dig guys who have skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Sometimes it is hard to show them off though when you are feeding your pet llama or building time travel machines in your living room.

[lacedmm1]

Just an SRNA here, but I can say that everything I do to a willing participant in the OR is a nursing skill. After I am a nurse, what other skills would I possess. Chicks dig guys who have skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Sometimes it is hard to show them off though when you are feeding your pet llama or building time travel machines in your living room.

Love the Napoleon Dynamite reference :chuckle!!!

[EmeraldNYL, BSN, RN]

What kind of nursing skills exactly?? I don't have to clean up poop anymore, thank god!! I see the patient pre-op and go over the anesthesia plan and the patient's history, start the IV, and then manage the patient during the course of the anesthetic, whether it be general anesthesia, or spinal, or sedation. I also see inpatients after their surgery to follow up. Really the best way to understand what a CRNA does is to shadow one!!

[loveanesthesia]

As a CRNA my scope of practice is very large. All kinds of people need an anesthetic, so I care for everyone from pediatric patients to transplant patients, etc, etc. I have to use communication, observational, critical thinking, and technical skills on a daily basis. All things I also used as an ICU nurse.