Is the CRNA job stressful?

[sunshine32]

Is this career a stressful one? How often to problems occur. The anesthesiologist at my work says the career is not stressful only when you have a problem. He says if a problem arises that an anesthesiologist can be paged.

[krzysiu]

well, i am under the impression that knowing you can kill someone may be potentially stressful at times.

[sunshine32]

But how often are these stressful moments?

[LonghornRN]

I have heard the job of the CRNA described as 99% ho hum and 1% !!!!. I am not saying that I completely agree with this statement, but I think that when a pt goes bad, things can get exciting. As far as stress goes, I feel that any job you are well prepared for isn't really very stressful, and from what I understand NA school puts you through the ringer so that YOU WILL BE prepared.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Is this career a stressful one? How often to problems occur. The anesthesiologist at my work says the career is not stressful only when you have a problem. He says if a problem arises that an anesthesiologist can be paged.

Okay...any good CRNA education teaches to work independently. CRNA school is not training us to be monitor monkeys, and we don't automatically call the anesthesiologist when something goes wrong. We call for help of another provider if we need it, but in a lot of places calling for another anesthesia provider is not an option because you are the only one there.

It sounds like that MDA has an ego to match his/her paycheck!

There are many practices that don't even utilize MDAs.

[armynse]

well, i am under the impression that knowing you can kill someone may be potentially stressful at times.

If you are responsible for putting someone to sleep, you are equally responsible for waking them up...patients expect to wake up(i.e., no celestial discharges in the OR). I'm sure the stress level rises when a high-risk patient is taken to surgery.

[CRNAGAL]

It depends on what your definition of stressful is. I would say it can be a pretty stressful job, we are responsible for rendering a patient unconscious, taking away their ability to breath for themselves, making sure they are safely positioned before and during and after the surgery, maintain their hemodynamics, and wake them up comfortably at the end. You have to be able to roll with the changes in our job, you may get pulled into many rooms during the day, cases you weren't expecting might get put in your room, lots of add ons, etc. There is pressure for fast room turnover times. You may get called to do anesthesia outside of the OR in an ancillary area. Thankfully, the terrible times where you need to change your underwear afterward are fairly uncommon, but will happen at some point. The biggest thing I caught from your post is the statement that if you get into a tough situation " just page the anesthesiologist". Sorry, thats not how is works. We are licensed professionals responsible for our own actions. Practicing with the ideal that you will just call the doc if there is a problem isn't safe nor fair for your patient under anesthesia, nor is it how a CRNA thinks and functions. Won't hold up in a court of law, either.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Thank you CRNAgal for your words of wisdom. I'm not a CRNA (nor do I play one on TV). However, I am an APN and like a CRNA, we are responsible for our actions. When the buck stops with you, yes, its stressful.