How hard is CRNA programs vs NP programs?

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.

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.

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.

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.

15 hours per week isn't hardcore

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.