I've been working towards this for awhile. I'm finally getting all of my ducks in a row to apply next year. I love critical care so far, and I think anesthesia would be like working in critical care on steroids, which I think I would enjoy. Looking at the numbers though, it makes me wonder if it really is worth it for a California RN to go into the debt:
My current RN biweekly pay working 4 12 hour shifts/week: $4038 with an after tax take home of $2834 claiming married with 1 dependent. Monthly take home of $5668.
Potential biweekly CRNA pay: Assuming a starting pay of 150k (which I think would be achievable in Southern California): $5769 with a take home of $3809. Monthly take home pay of $7618. Our local school is 100k. Looking at a different out of state school they say the average student loan debt including cost of living is 150k. Paying that back over 20 years leaves you with a payment of $1254. $7618-$1254 = $6364. This leaves me with an take home pay of $6364 after student loan payment. 6463-5668 (current take home pay) = $696. A lot of work and extra debt for an extra $696. If pay is increased to 175k (California average), take home goes up to $8672. $8672-1254 = $7418. 7418-5668 = 1758. An increase of 1758. This makes it look a little more attractive.
A local hospital pays RNs $60/hour. 48hrs/week x 48 weeks = $138248. with a gross biweekly pay of $5317, net pay of $3555. A monthly pay of $7110. $7418 (175k CRNA pay)-$7110 (RN pay at $60/hr) = $308. Not a huge increase in pay, but I guess the question is do I really want to work as an ICU nurse for the rest of my life, and is the increased level of respect along with increased autonomy worth the level of debt that I would get myself into with CRNA school? It seems like a much better deal in states where nursing isn't unionized and are paid poorly. It also seems like a better deal if one is willing to move to a rural area where cost-of-living is low and pay is high.
Since current CRNAs know best about the current job market, would you do it all over again if you were in my shoes? I'm not worried about the lost income from not working for 2-3 years. It's just that if I put the work in to do this, I want my standard of living to be increased at least a little bit, for my wife's sake.
I am HIGHLY considering USAGPAN, but who knows if I would get in? I think if tuition and cost of living is paid for, it would definitely worth it. Plus I get to travel and serve my country (which is something I always wanted to do anyways, but avoided because of the low pay). It sounds awesome, just not sure if my GPA would be competitive enough for USAGPAN!!
I am very torn between CRNA and FNP. I definitely don't wanna see myself being a bedside RN until I retire. I know there are so many routes to choose from in Nursing and I have eliminated some of them and narrowed it down to those two. I started late in my nursing career after realizing that engineering was not for me. Anyhow, right after graduation I was grateful to land a job in Med Surg by choice. I stayed there for 2 years to learn all the basics of real nursing with real patients. Being a foreign graduate, I didn't want to jump right into a Tele or ICU; it did help me immensely. Having completed those 2 years, I got a spot in our ICU and this is where I was introduced to the idea of considering CRNA. I am now on my second year in ICU and already have my CCRN.
I don't know if I can afford to go back to school and not be allowed to work with my living expenses amounting to $2.5K a month for the next 2 to 2 and a half years depending on which school I could get in here in California. Also, I have yet to acquire all my credentials overseas to make sure they are in line with what they want. So many buts and ifs. The fire is there to pursue this path but there are so many questions in my head. I know I can do it as I've accomplished quite a bit without any support from my family.
I'm single and I can pretty do whatever I want and I would like to think that it is an advantage as I don't have to worry about anything. I am in a battle with myself everyday. I am very self motivated yet I am torn. I'd say what scares me most is the expenses I have to go through in this journey. If I could only take a loan from a wealthy individual who has a chunk of disposable income, that would be great! Haha! Anyone?
My plan is to turn in my application to the only school I want and if I get rejected then FNP it is which there is a program that's offered all year round. Definitely not staying at the bedside for long. Thanks for this thread. Very helpful. Thanks for reading mine too. :)
I went to school at 40 after working as nurse almost 20 years. Been out now 3 years.... Wish I wouldn't have done it. CRNAs are basically becoming wal mart workers and these big companies are driving benefits, salaries and quality of life down. This was my dream for 10 years - the student loan debt, time away from your family- just not worth it in long run. Hours are long- call, weekends, holidays.... Might as well stay working Icu with other nurses that respect your skill and knowledge.
Do you think you would have been better off doing another 5 years, including 4 years of paid residency, and becoming an anesthesiologist instead? Residency pays roughly $4k a month. Salary for anesthesiologist is $250-450 starting depending where you are and where you work.
Honestly if I were younger yes. No limitations in practice, respect from other ollies. As far as being my age and going- would not re-do. Life is too short to be stressed out about debt and miss time from family. Plus at the end of my career I'll only have profited about $50k from going .
Would you you say that you profited from going to CRNA school though?
Honestly if I were younger yes. No limitations in practice, respect from other ollies. As far as being my age and going- would not re-do. Life is too short to be stressed out about debt and miss time from family. Plus at the end of my career I'll only have profited about $50k from going .
Do you think you would have been better off doing another 5 years, including 4 years of paid residency, and becoming an anesthesiologist instead? Residency pays roughly $4k a month. Salary for anesthesiologist is $250-450 starting depending where you are and where you work.
In my group at least, the MDA's were more miserable than the CRNA's. We have sites more than 50 miles from the mother ship and they are the ones who have to travel to do the two rooms in these remote sites. We don't have enough staff to send to send 3 people for a team to each site, so the CRNA's are spared the nightmare winter commute in the dark and the snow.
We are corporate widgets subservient to the guys at the top who will do ANYTHING to make a buck. There's no one to even complain to because corporate is in another state. If these MDA's didn't have kids to get through college, they would have been out of here long ago.
Copy. Thanks for the input. I'm 31 and thinking about doing that. CRNA was my path because I thought I was too old, not in have changed my mind. I think it's med school for me.
I dunno but i bought a corvette with cash after working 4 months. I worked 80+ hours a week though first 6 months. Paid off loans, bought a nice car, now I'm investing. Seems pretty good to me.
I dunno but i bought a corvette with cash after working 4 months. I worked 80+ hours a week though first 6 months. Paid off loans, bought a nice car, now I'm investing. Seems pretty good to me.
Wouldn't want you taking care of me. Working those hours is a demonstration of bad judgement. I hope a really ugly car was worth it.
Its not that bad. Never has my job as a crna been as draining as an icu nurse. Most of that work is bread and butter work. Doesn't take much energy out of my stores to keep people down for scopes and such. Only about 36 of those hours are actual what some would call full cases. Its not like its 80 hours of head and hearts if you know what I mean.
It really depends on the individual and your goals of what you want out of life. Money is transient. Sure its nice to make a big salary and buy nice things but others might value more time with family. I wanted to be a CRNA, even moved departments to get the experience needed to get into school. I put forth a great effort in my BSN and networked my ass off with all the CRNAs and Docs I could. In the end, I chose not to go to school and its not because I didnt want to do it, its because of how I wanted to live my life.
I'm 31, I have two small children. My wife and I live in a small community in a rural but not to rural area (we have small 6.5 acre hobby farm, its awesome!). My wife who is also a nurse works part time and stays home with the remainder. I work full time. We have two mortgages with one being a rental. We also have car payments, utility expenses, food costs for a family of 4, fun money, savings money, money for renovations, etc. In order for me to go to CRNA school we would have to sell everything and limit the amount of financial responsibility while I go to school. In the end, financially for me it is not worth it for me to go to school. Sure I would make 150k a year base but thats only about 40k more than what I make now and we live pretty comfortably. The time in school and away from my family isnt worth it at this point. The debt from borrowing would amount to another mortgage and after you take loan payments out, I would effectively be making less than what I make now! Sure, its an investment in my future, but who says in 15 years I wouldnt want to do something else? Do I really want to pay off another mortgage of debt for another 10 years? What about my kids? What do i want for them? These were all things I took into consideration. In the end I backed out and I think I made a wise decision for myself. Of course this is my situation and my choice, others will have different situations. Its also why I have ruled out med school. I ended up going to NP school and I'm happy with my choice. I would advise you to do an opportunity cost of what you want out of life. Take into consideration those things and see if it is worth it to you or not (opportunity cost). You have to do what is right for you and what you want! Don't let others dictate that for you!
I would like to tack on my quest for advice here. I am 37 years old BSN, RN. I have worked ICUs for 7 years. I am travel nursing now and enjoy the pay. I have saved close to 80K for potential CRNA school. I have applied to a couple and am waiting to see. I am debating whether to do CRNA or get my master in healthcare administration as I have a bachelors in finance also. I am unsure which route is better. THe master in healthcare administration would allow me to continue to work for sure. I am single with no kids at this point. I like ICU nursing but am tired of direct patient care in that aspect. I have shadowed CRNAs with some saying the field saturated especially in the south where I am from. I have worked in the business world before.
FilAmICU
9 Posts
I am very torn between CRNA and FNP. I definitely don't wanna see myself being a bedside RN until I retire. I know there are so many routes to choose from in Nursing and I have eliminated some of them and narrowed it down to those two. I started late in my nursing career after realizing that engineering was not for me. Anyhow, right after graduation I was grateful to land a job in Med Surg by choice. I stayed there for 2 years to learn all the basics of real nursing with real patients. Being a foreign graduate, I didn't want to jump right into a Tele or ICU; it did help me immensely. Having completed those 2 years, I got a spot in our ICU and this is where I was introduced to the idea of considering CRNA. I am now on my second year in ICU and already have my CCRN.
I don't know if I can afford to go back to school and not be allowed to work with my living expenses amounting to $2.5K a month for the next 2 to 2 and a half years depending on which school I could get in here in California. Also, I have yet to acquire all my credentials overseas to make sure they are in line with what they want. So many buts and ifs. The fire is there to pursue this path but there are so many questions in my head. I know I can do it as I've accomplished quite a bit without any support from my family.
I'm single and I can pretty do whatever I want and I would like to think that it is an advantage as I don't have to worry about anything. I am in a battle with myself everyday. I am very self motivated yet I am torn. I'd say what scares me most is the expenses I have to go through in this journey. If I could only take a loan from a wealthy individual who has a chunk of disposable income, that would be great! Haha! Anyone?
My plan is to turn in my application to the only school I want and if I get rejected then FNP it is which there is a program that's offered all year round. Definitely not staying at the bedside for long. Thanks for this thread. Very helpful. Thanks for reading mine too. :)