How hard is CRNA programs vs NP programs?

babyNP., APRN · Oct 8, 2016

CRNA is tougher to get into. There are people that love CRNA and people who hate it. There are people who love being a NP and people who hate it.

Trauma Columnist · Oct 9, 2016

YOU are the one who has to determine many of these questions. I will tell you that I shadowed two CRNAs prior to becoming an APRN. To me, it was BORING standing around after the intubation....there is no way in the world I could ever be happy standing around in a freezer all day....ugh.

I still go to the OR every so often to do intubations (as a pre-hospital provider) and I still find it way too cold and way too boring...

PG2018 · Oct 12, 2016

I've never been a CRNA, but a MSN is a pretty easy degree as a NP. I think accounting was more cognitively taxing.

Heh heh. Taxing. Accounting, lol.

offlabel · Oct 12, 2016

The two are not really comparable. Anesthesia training is for a very specific and specialized job. It comes after very specialized and specific nursing practice in critical care. Not too many directions to go from there. Not that the sub-specialty isn't enough in and of itself. There is plenty to do. NP training is very broad in comparison and specialization from there is possible as is remaining in general practice.

Apples to oranges unless a program allows specialization in a sub-specialty.

ED Nurse, RN · Oct 19, 2016

I've never been a CRNA, but a MSN is a pretty easy degree as a NP. I think accounting was more cognitively taxing.
Heh heh. Taxing. Accounting, lol.

I have to disagree with MSN is an easy degree as an NP. I'm in the AGACNP program at UPENN and easy is certainly not a word the comes to mind- I put in 15+ hrs a week studying, as do many of my classmates. It is a very difficult program. Like most other things in life though, you get out what you put in.

Aromatic · Oct 19, 2016

15 hours per week isn't hardcore

PG2018 · Oct 19, 2016

I have to disagree with MSN is an easy degree as an NP. I'm in the AGACNP program at UPENN and easy is certainly not a word the comes to mind- I put in 15+ hrs a week studying, as do many of my classmates. It is a very difficult program. Like most other things in life though, you get out what you put in.

I disagree. Time spent studying doesn't equate to difficulty.

ED Nurse, RN · Oct 19, 2016

15 hours per week isn't hardcore

It is when you work full time. You can't say an NP program, if a legitimate program, is easy.

PG2018 · Oct 20, 2016

It is when you work full time. You can't say an NP program, if a legitimate program, is easy.

Mine was. It was needlessly time consuming but not cognitively challenging. The volume of information was retainable.

Financial accounting, chemistry, history of civil war and reconstruction, and vertebrate paleontology were all undergraduate courses I took with my first BS. They demonstrate a range of difficulty from cognitively challenging to heavy information flow.

Yes, my NP training was provided by a state university medical school/hospital and veterans administration hospital. I worked full time and even had a side hustle one year. I worked over 40/week in BSN studies. I did not work from 18-21yoa (wish I had) in my first undergrad. I took some classes towards a M.Ed. circa 2004 and they involved as much busy work as nursing with limited cognitive strain. In fact those too were a local state university but entirely online, and I think those were early online.

RunNP · Oct 23, 2016

I do not think any program is hard if you apply yourself. I know some pretty average students who have graduated as CRNA, NP and MD but they all studied and did what was required of them. That old saying that half of all physicians finish at the bottom of their class, but they still passed.

hmatthewcooper · Oct 31, 2016

I've got three degrees and two of them are from top 10 nursing schools (at the time). My MSN was challenging. It wasn't unobtainable, but I certainly had to put in the work. I breezed through undergrad deans list honors society and all that. I would put my graduate education at slightly above some of the more difficult hard sciences and maths I took in undergrad. It's a little concerning that some people report it being so easy. There are definitely some NP factories out there pumping out providers left and right.