info needed from current crna's, please....Is it boring????

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Sep 20, 2005

What kind of nurses have you been talking to? Not CRNAs, I bet.

suzanne4, RN · Sep 20, 2005

Definitely not sure who you have been talking to, but what you have stated that they have told you doesn't represent anesthesia at all.

I suggest that you have a shadow experience with a CRNA before your Christmas vacation. It will really open up your eyes for you. and in a good way.:wink2:

heartICU · Sep 20, 2005

hello all crna's! i am currently in nursing school for my bsn and thought that i wanted to become a crna. however, the nurses that i have come into contact with have raised the following points, which have me thinking that perhaps this isn't the path i want to take. please let me know what you think so that i know whether or not i should explore this option further!
1--it is a VERY boring job. you just do the pre-op health assessment, administer the anesthetic, and sit and wait........for hours......
2--you have to deal with surgeons which are some of the most difficult doctors to deal with.
3--you don't do much "nursing" since the patient is asleep for most of the time.
4--the reason that the money is so good is because there is lot of opportunity for mistakes and a lot of responsibility but not much reward.
5--you deal more with machines than people.
please let me know what your experience has been as it would really help me with deciding on my career path! i plan on shadowing a crna during my winter break if i can to see what it is really like, but i'd enjoy your input as well!
thanks!!!

1. It is not a boring job. You don't just administer the anesthetic and switch to autopilot. For one thing, administration of an anesthetic is not just a one-time thing. You do it second-to-second, to make sure your patients are comfortable and their condition is optimal for surgery.

2. You have to deal with all sorts of difficult people, whether they are surgeons or housekeepers. Yes, some surgeons are difficult. But so are many other people too. In my experience, the type of response I get depends a lot on my attitude. Good attitude = good reponse in 98% of cases.

3. What do you think nursing is? My patients don't need to be wide awake and alert for me to provide nursing care. I guess I am confused as to your definition of nursing. Do I sit down and have a heart-to-heart with them for a couple hours before surgery? No. But I am acutely aware of their vital signs, hemodynamics, lab results, and the progress of the surgeon so that I can intervene immediately if something is amiss. That's nursing to me.

4. The reasons that CRNAs are paid so well is because they have to have a huge amount of knowledge stored in their brains to be pulled out at a moment's notice. CRNAs are worth every penny they are paid, if not more. I know that every ICU nurse thinks that their patients are the sickest, but truly, a patient is at their most vulnerable time when they are in the middle of surgery and not in control of their most basic bodily functions. That's what CRNAs do: provide an environment optimal for surgery while at the same time providing for the maximum safety and stability possible for the patient.

5. Yes, we do use some machinery. But that machinery is attached to our patients. We use the data from the machines to help make decisions regarding patient care. However, nothing is a substitute for good old-fashioned assessment. If your assessment skills aren't good enough that you could provide an anesthetic without monitors if you had to, then you shouldn't be doing anesthesia.

I am curious. You say that you wanted to go to school to become a CRNA after you complete BSN school. What made you decide on anesthesia? It doesn't sound as if you know exactly what a CRNA does. I would follow the advice of some of the posters before me - shadow a couple to see if it is really what you want to do.

zoozoo · Sep 20, 2005

I agree with the above said and definitely recommend shadowing. When I first heard what other nurses say about CRNAs-I thought ,for some reason, that they are jealous... Maybe those RNs never saw CRNA at work and what they saying is not supported by the evidence. As a matter of fact, before I got a job at ICU I was told by my close friend who is a nurse that "nurses in ICU never do a thing, they just sit and stare at the monitors..." Her statement made me want to shadow an ICU nurse.

I agree that many times nurses make comments that "they are the NURSES, but who are those-CRNAs? Overly paid..." 2 reasons,I think:don't know what the job is or more lokely, don't want to know. Not many people want to put life on hold like many of us on this site do, not many people want to go to school again in their 30-40's, and definitely not many people willing to sacrifice lifes of their families and put schooling first for 2 +years.

tamm1 · Sep 20, 2005

Thank you e/o for the input and advice! i wanted to be a crna because i had heard from several doctors that it is a challenging job that requires a huge core of knowledge, very fine critical assessment skills, the ability to work with many diff types of ppl, and the need to keep thinking on your toes while caring for the individual patient based on his/her needs and making sure that those needs continue to be met during and after surgery. however, the nurses that i spoke to seemed to have a diff opinion (and yes, none of them were crna's) so i was a bit concerned!

thanks so much for all your input! i will definitely try to shadow s/o so that i don't get my info from third hand sources.

brainfreeze · Sep 20, 2005

Thank you e/o for the input and advice! i wanted to be a crna because i had heard from several doctors that it is a challenging job that requires a huge core of knowledge, very fine critical assessment skills, the ability to work with many diff types of ppl, and the need to keep thinking on your toes while caring for the individual patient based on his/her needs and making sure that those needs continue to be met during and after surgery. however, the nurses that i spoke to seemed to have a diff opinion (and yes, none of them were crna's) so i was a bit concerned!
thanks so much for all your input! i will definitely try to shadow s/o so that i don't get my info from third hand sources.

Tamm, I personally let similar advice re: CRNA's keep me from going after my initial desire to follow anesthesia as a career choice. I heard the same thing re: the job being boring, lacking any true "nursing" (which I could argue most nursing jobs actually lack, as we rarely get to have those heart to heart therapeutic conversations with our patients), and that anesthetists are "greedy". I have to admit I am glad you entered this forum to fing out for yourself. I personally was pigeonholed into a very unfulfilling career for three years before I followed my gut and started working in the units and shadowing CRNA's. Now I can say that I am extremely excited and sure that I am making the correct decision to become a CRNA (I officially start in January at Duke). Don't let the negativity of others disuade you, find out for yourself. Further more, the reason that nurses are so poorly compensated in my opinion is due to nurses like those you have spoken with that somehow assume that if we are compensated adequately, we must not "CARE", which couldn't be more untrue. When you shadow a CRNA I think you will find them to be the most detail oriented "nurse" you have ever had the opportunity to meet, constantly assessing their patients and making adjustments accordingly. When I have surgery I hope to have someone who cares in that manner monitoring me.

tamm1 · Sep 21, 2005

thanks soooo much for taking the time to write back to me! i am so happy that i decided to post the question since i was getting nervous and was beginning to doubt my decision....but my husband told me to stick to my guns and not to let others dissuade me! however, i wanted to get some "inside info" to allow me to decide whether it is in fact as they said and not worth the investment to pursue it (and i mean the years, the commitment, and the work!) or whether those that have pursued it are actually happy and i should look into it some more...so thanks again!!!!!

please continue to let me know what you crna's think!

gotosleep · Sep 21, 2005

hello all crna's! i am currently in nursing school for my bsn and thought that i wanted to become a crna. however, the nurses that i have come into contact with have raised the following points, which have me thinking that perhaps this isn't the path i want to take. please let me know what you think so that i know whether or not i should explore this option further!
1--it is a VERY boring job. you just do the pre-op health assessment, administer the anesthetic, and sit and wait........for hours......
2--you have to deal with surgeons which are some of the most difficult doctors to deal with.
3--you don't do much "nursing" since the patient is asleep for most of the time.
4--the reason that the money is so good is because there is lot of opportunity for mistakes and a lot of responsibility but not much reward.
5--you deal more with machines than people.
please let me know what your experience has been as it would really help me with deciding on my career path! i plan on shadowing a crna during my winter break if i can to see what it is really like, but i'd enjoy your input as well!
thanks!!!

couldn't you present your questions in a more tactful manner? christ...I can't believe anyone even bothered to respond to this.

tamm1 · Sep 21, 2005

i'm sorry that you're offended, but it was not meant to do so!

gotosleep · Sep 21, 2005

i'm sorry that you're offended, but it was not meant to do so!

i wasn't offended.

livefree · Sep 21, 2005

hello all crna's! i am currently in nursing school for my bsn and thought that i wanted to become a crna. however, the nurses that i have come into contact with have raised the following points, which have me thinking that perhaps this isn't the path i want to take. please let me know what you think so that i know whether or not i should explore this option further!
1--it is a VERY boring job. you just do the pre-op health assessment, administer the anesthetic, and sit and wait........for hours......
2--you have to deal with surgeons which are some of the most difficult doctors to deal with.
3--you don't do much "nursing" since the patient is asleep for most of the time.
4--the reason that the money is so good is because there is lot of opportunity for mistakes and a lot of responsibility but not much reward.
5--you deal more with machines than people.
please let me know what your experience has been as it would really help me with deciding on my career path! i plan on shadowing a crna during my winter break if i can to see what it is really like, but i'd enjoy your input as well!
thanks!!!

I have been an RN for 10 years now, and didn't even know what a CRNA was until I had been nursing for 4 years. I have worked a lot in a really great Level I trauma teaching hospital, where the anesthesia attendings just LOVE to teach anyone, including the PACU nurses. I have learned so much spent a bunch of time in the OR with the anesthesia teams. It inspired me to work towards this amazing career.

We all deal with difficult people in every aspect of life, including any job that we do. Whether it is nursing or not.

As far as "nursing", what is "nursing" anyway? If a nurse really likes bedside nursing and has no desire to further their education, career, or financial stability, then I would recommend that they keep at it. Otherwise, I think becoming a CRNA would be a great choice.

One of the main things that keeps me positive about pursuing this career choice, is that I have spoken to and followed many CRNA's, and not one person discouraged me from doing it. All I have received is encouragement from CRNA's regarding the profession. Not one person has said that I should not pursue it and everyone has said that, although it is a long and hard road to get there, it is very well worth it in the end.

Good luck with your choice.