Is it compulsory to get icu experience to become crna?

My_brain_hurts · Dec 31, 2009

Well, yes and no. You have to have a minimum of 1 yr "critical care experience"n (usually more to be competitive). But it is left up to each school to decide what they will accept as "critical care" experience, at least that's how I understand it. If you get ICU experience that is definitely accepted at all schools. Some schools will accept ER experience, some won't. Some accept PACU, some don't. I don't know about OR.

I think what schools want to see is if you have worked some where with where YOU managed pts on vents, vasoactive drips, sedation, etc. I know you see that in the OR but I don't know how much OR nurses really get to manage the pts since that is what anesthesia is doing.

Also, different ICUs are sometimes better than others to get experience in, so they say. Surgical/trauma is where a lot of people go, also CVICU. I happen to have gotten my experience in a Medical ICU, but we had lots of vents, drips, sedation, etc. Check out the different schools you are interested in to see what they accept and if they have a preference for type of ICU or even hospital. If not, or if you can't find a job you want where they recommend, go where the accuity is high, where you will get to see the vents and sedation and the really sick pts.

I loved the OR when I was a student! I knew I wanted to be a CRNA and so going to the ICU was the best choice for me because I wanted to be most marketable to a wider group of schools.

Good luck to you!

CRNA, DNSc · Dec 31, 2009

While it is possible there might be some school out there that accepts OR experience- that would be the exception not the rule! Most schools will not accept OR expereince as critical care experience because reality is that in the OR the person actually taking care of the patient, managing fluilds, meds etc is an anesthesia provider. As for your question about Dallas programs the nearest programs are Texas Weslyan and Texas Christian- check their website because I think they require/prefer applicants to be CCRN --which you have to have a certain number of critical care hours of experience to take the exam. Good Luck

Hopeful17 · Jan 12, 2010

I know for a fact that Interamerican University in Peurto Rico accepts OR experience. Tuition is super reasonable too, like $18,000 for full tuition including books. ....just hope your Spanish is good! : ) I believe you need to retake your RN boards in Spanish. Program is supposed to be really good/nurturing. Only con I heard was limited experience doing spinal anesthesia. Hope this helped : )

XingtheBBB, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2010

As a nurse with several years of OR experience- all the while keeping my foot in the door by floating to med/surg adults and peds to maintain assessment and therapeutic skills- I would NOT consider CRNA school with just OR experience. Not even as one of the only OR nurses who was still comfortable starting IVs, and hanging antibiotics as well as reading all the labs and rhythm strips. And most OR nurses I work with won't notice a desat to 75 or worsening hypotension. So considering that my nursing knowledge grew by leaps and bounds in my first year in ICU and is still growing- a lot- I wouldn't even think of taking a shortcut.

Look around for some example interview questions. You aren't ready to apply until you can understand what's being asked and take a fair crack at answering them.

I know this board consisders this truth to be too mean to say but I'm going to say it anyway. CRNA school and the road to it is hard. The least of your responsibilities is going to the AANA website and perusing the list of approved schools, selecting a few, and reading their requirements.

seansanf120 · Jan 19, 2010

Hi there,

I know nothing about Dallas, other than the Cowboys suck, but I can give you advice on your ICU position. A lot of people go to the ICU to get into Anesthesia school one day. Be careful doing this though, because if you go to the ICU you better be prepared to learn about vents, how to titrate drips, how to perform detailed head to toe assessments, and how to recognize the smallest details that could mean the difference between the patient staying alive or dying. So if you don't respect the position/unit/patients, and just want to put your time in, the ICU and the staff will eat you alive. Enjoy the work and the knowledge you will get out of the ICU, and you'll be just fine.

Good luck

richyd4u · Aug 29, 2010

Hi there,
I know nothing about Dallas, other than the Cowboys suck, but I can give you advice on your ICU position. A lot of people go to the ICU to get into Anesthesia school one day. Be careful doing this though, because if you go to the ICU you better be prepared to learn about vents, how to titrate drips, how to perform detailed head to toe assessments, and how to recognize the smallest details that could mean the difference between the patient staying alive or dying. So if you don't respect the position/unit/patients, and just want to put your time in, the ICU and the staff will eat you alive. Enjoy the work and the knowledge you will get out of the ICU, and you'll be just fine.
Good luck

I always get a kick out of ICU nurses and their sense of entitlement. I am a TCU nurse who frequently floats in the ICU. I have to deal with a few ICU nurses that have that same mentality...that somehow their job is so much harder than everyone elses. I actually enjoy being pulled to the ICU...you only have 1-2 pts. Vents are a breeze, mainly cared for by respiratory. Titrating drips is a breeze as well. Try taking care of 7-8 TCU patients that either should already be in the ICU, or just came out of the ICU prematuraly. I can't even count how many ICU nurses have come to our TCU unit and just fell apart. In no way should any nurse be intemidated by the ICU.

AbeFrohman, BSN, RN · Sep 1, 2010

I always get a kick out of ICU nurses and their sense of entitlement. I am a TCU nurse who frequently floats in the ICU. I have to deal with a few ICU nurses that have that same mentality...that somehow their job is so much harder than everyone elses. I actually enjoy being pulled to the ICU...you only have 1-2 pts. Vents are a breeze, mainly cared for by respiratory. Titrating drips is a breeze as well. Try taking care of 7-8 TCU patients that either should already be in the ICU, or just came out of the ICU prematuraly. I can't even count how many ICU nurses have come to our TCU unit and just fell apart. In no way should any nurse be intemidated by the ICU.

Everything is difficult in it's own way and also as difficult as you make it. ICU/ER nursing has the most relevance to anesthesia as you are working with vents, drips, hemodymanic status, blood gases, etc. Can working an ICU be easy? Sure it can. If you don't care to know the pharmacology and physiology behind drugs, vent settings, and disease and just follow protocols, it can be easy. Can the floor be hard? Yep, and to me it's harder than the ICU, but for different reasons. Time management is very difficult on the floor.

So to summarize, I think both are equally difficult in different ways, but the things you are doing in the ICU are relevant to what you do in anesthesia.

I find it laughable though when floor nurses float to the ICU and say it's easy though. They aren't thinking about recalculating the PA pressure based on the peep setting on the ventilator or about a what happens to potassium with shifts in pH or aboutthe possibility of methemoglobinemia with nipride and the treatment for that or the possibility of causing hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis when rehydrating with NS.

As to the OP, I don't know any place that take OR experience since they have little to no interaction with the things involved in critical care. I do know there are a few that take PACU experience if you can make a good enough argument about how many vents you take care of and the crashing patients out of the OR, or if you get overflow from an ICU.

manusko · Sep 2, 2010

I agree with Abe and I would also add that when a PCU nurse is floated to the CCU, they will get the easiest patients avaiable. I have seen many of these nurses freak out about having an insulin drip. Yes they have 4 patients or so, but they are generally stable and require 4 hour vital signs. Usually if they are not quite stable, then they fast call the ICU nurses and try and get the patient moved.

When I have floated to PCU it is the opposite. I get their harder patients and get to hear things like "you should have no problem with these patients because you are a critical care nurse". I am not complaining about PCU nurses. A lot of them are right where they want to be and would not switch over for anything.