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Discussion

Is taking classes again necessary?

I have been a nurse for 7 years (3 years doing med-surg and the last 4 doing case management dealing with basically outpatient care). I am considering CRNA or NP school and thought I would try to get a job on a ICU, likely after transitioning from another unit because I have not done hands-on nursing in 4 years and do not think I will be hired directly into ICU. Anyway, my A & P and patho and pharm are very rusty since I have not been using it like I did when I worked on med-surg. THere is a lot of things from nursing school I do not remember. I almost feel like a new nurse except for my instinctive nature and ability to look at things wholistically. Will I learn what I need to know doing ICU from experience or should I go back and take some courses as a refresher or just find good textbooks to read?

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  • Experts

You should be able to pick that up with a good, solid orientation. But be aware that your science courses will need to be redone in most cases as schools will not accept those that are older than five years, plus there will be a list of classes that you will need to have done before even applying.

Some that were not required of nursing students but were part of the pre-med curriculum, not sure if you took any of them when you were in school.

Good luck to you.

My suggestion would be to shadow a CRNA for a few days to get a feel for what it is really like, before making a decision to go that route. Not sure if you have done that before.

  • Author
You should be able to pick that up with a good, solid orientation. But be aware that your science courses will need to be redone in most cases as schools will not accept those that are older than five years, plus there will be a list of classes that you will need to have done before even applying.

Some that were not required of nursing students but were part of the pre-med curriculum, not sure if you took any of them when you were in school.

Good luck to you.

My suggestion would be to shadow a CRNA for a few days to get a feel for what it is really like, before making a decision to go that route. Not sure if you have done that before.

I am in the process of trying to do that at this time. I have looked at the requirements of the 2 schools that I would be interested in and they do not mention anything regarding science classes having to be in the last 5 years. The only class that they mention to be required is graduate level statistics. If I would be required to re-take science courses, would it be listed under requirements?

  • Experts

You may want to ask the two schools directly about repeating science classes. The "rule of thumb" about science classes >5 years old not being accepted is so common and familiar in academia that schools may not feel it's necessary to mention it specifically on a website or in their literature. It would be a shame to wait until you've jumped through all the other hoops and actually applied to be told that you have to repeat a bunch of courses -- better to know that up front.

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