ICU volunteering or working experience in other country

[JuneRN]

Dear all CRNA, SRNA, and CRNA-want-to-be,

I am so glad to come across this forum, and I have been surfing this bb for few weeks. Thanks for all the sincere inputs that all of you have put into this forum. I like this forum so much, it has provided me a lot of insight views of a lot of areas that I have never known about.

Ok, since I am a newbie here, let me self-introduced myself. I am in my second semester of ADN program, and I have been to this country from a developing country for almost 4 years, thus I am still working hard on improving my English since it is my third language (this is also quite a reason that I have such a hard time in the nursing program because of readings which consist of lots of vocabularies).

Here is my question. I have a feeling to go back to my country (developing country) to work/volunteer in ICU for certain amount of time after I graduate from the program. Then, I will come back to continue to gain the nursing experience in the states. However, I wonder whether the ICU experience that I have in my country (developing country) can be counted as part of the ICU experience that is required (at least 1 year of ICU experience as stated) by most of the CRNA program application?

Any input from anyone of you will be highly appreciated. Thanks.:)

[suzanne4, RN]

More than likely, NO. The reason for wanting the experience is wanting the nurse to have practice with PA catheters, arterial lines, balloon pumps, etc.

Most developing countries do not have these, and if they do, they are in very limited amounts. I would highly recommend having at least two years of experience in the US before applying to anesthesia school, the more experience the better.

Which country are you originally from? I now live in SE Asia so I am speaking from experience. I hope that this helps.

Good luck........................... :balloons:

[suzanne4, RN]

Just thought of something........................you can not get into anesthesia school with an ADN degree. You must have a 4-yr degree. You will get a Master's degree with the anesthesia program. This may change your plans a little bit.

[XIGRIS]

More than likely, NO. The reason for wanting the experience is wanting the nurse to have practice with PA catheters, arterial lines, balloon pumps, etc.

Most developing countries do not have these, and if they do, they are in very limited amounts. I would highly recommend having at least two years of experience in the US before applying to anesthesia school, the more experience the better.

Which country are you originally from? I now live in SE Asia so I am speaking from experience. I hope that this helps.

Good luck........................... :balloons:

Hi,

Well, let's see. I learned all hemodynamics monitoring, invasive lines, aortic counterpulsation, cvvhdf machines and really almost all critical care skills before I came to the US. I had 1 1/2 year experience as a CVICU nurse before I worked in Texas. I only had 2 weeks orientation on a busy CVICU as a GN ( I was an RN in my country before I came here ) took the NCLEX 2 months after arrival and Texas and passed. My preceptor had to only orient me to the unit. I had the critical care skills from reading accurate hemodynamics waves to trouble shooting an IABP from my developing country.

So I guess I would say yes....you can use it as experience as I had used it in my application.

[suzanne4, RN]

It is highly dependent on where you trained. She stated that she was from a "developing" country, which usually means that they are not doing many open heart cases. Also she is just getting her ADN now, not a BS degree.

She also did not say that she would be working in a CVICU, just an ICU.

Which developing country are you from?

[JuneRN]

Thanks Suzanne4 and XIGRIS,

I am from SE Asia too. I am just too homesick and thinking about go back to work for a while after graduate. I have a BA in Finance degree from my home country, and a MS degree from the state. All of them are not related to Nursing. I may decide to go further BSN in the future.