Job/salary outlook for CRNAs in 2014?

[HenryH]

Hi,

My name is Henry, and this fall I'll be an entering college freshman. I'm contemplating whether to go for a BSN or take the pre-medical route. Lifestyle comfortability is important to me -- besides an interest in actual physician/CRNA work, doctors' salaries have always been attractive to me. However, physician salaries (at least, those of general/family practitioners) have fallen in recent years, while the salaries of CRNAs have risen.

To be honest, I'm not excited about taking pre-medical courses in college -- biology is okay, but all the intensive chemistry and math makes me dread college (BSN students at my school only take Survey of Chemistry courses). On the other hand, I find nursing classes dealing with biology, health science, anatomy, ethics, pharmacology, etc. interesting (I took an intro to nursing course during my senior year of highschool that can be submitted for college credit and found the course material enjoyable).

In my mid-sized city (200,000 pop. est.), hospitals/private clinics are currently offering $120k-$130k (public hospitals) and $150-$170k (private health care) as starting salaries. I won't beat around the bush -- these figures are attractive (hehe, "figures - attractive"...er, ahem).

However, I graduate college in 2010 and would be entering a CRNA program in 2012 (after the mandatory year of ICU practice); subsequently, I would begin work as a CRNA in 2014. I'm unsure of job/salary outlook forecasts this far in to the future (I've read that 6,000 CRNAs will be needed by 2010). Is the myriad of jobs and high salaries predicted to remain steady into the distant future? Or, after the shortage of CRNAs is satisfied, will salaries likely drop below the $100k level?

Any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

Henry

[darienblythe79]

RELAXSeriously, if you were soaking the answers you wouldn't keep asking the same thing. You are 18. There is plenty of time to figure out what you want. Enjoy college life. It only gets harder from here.

[HenryH]

The same thing? All I kept asking was if the CC's chem. class counted as principles of chem., because I think it's a survey course, unfortunately...

[fidelio]

Your suspicions about over-saturation in some areas of nursing or medicine could be accurate so, stay open to a broad scope of possibilities - As in “I’m interested in healthcare” rather than “I want to be a CRNA.” Things have a way of changing and when they do, you will want to change with them.

Getting into anything having to do with practicing medicine or nursing because of the money is like marrying someone you don’t know just so that you can loose your virginity (an infinitesimally small reward compared to the enormity of responsibility and sacrifice attached to it). In light of that, it would be good to give yourself the benefit of getting lots of exposure.

Did you know that you can work as a volunteer in most hospitals? You can volunteer as an unlicensed aid on a med-surg floor or in an ER. Getting your CNA or MA would be even better to work perhaps part-time while you are in school. Keep in mind that you are in the career research stage now and will be for several years. You aren’t yet at the career decision making stage thankfully.

At your stage of the game, you could also look into pharmacy, optometry, dentistry, dosimetry, cardiac sonography, cardio-pulmonary perfusionist, surgical PA, or even medical equipment sales. - All of them fascinating, lucrative, and take less time or equal to CRNA. Good luck

You may find the following link helpful in your research.

http://www.bls.gov/search/ooh.asp?ct=OOH

[Patricosuave]

Henry,

The job/salary outlook for CRNAs and AAs will remain stable as a result of the level of responsibility and education required to practice in both fields. However, no one is completely sure as to how the current and subsequent healthcare legislation is going to affect the demand for healthcare professionals (or more appropriately, hospitals' abilities to pay them on par with the status quo). Bottom line is, if you feel like that you have what it takes to practice as a CRNA, or AA, in a country like the U.K. (where you may be a government employee making far less), then your heart is in the right place. If salary (or life comfort) is your only motivation, or deciding factor, then you may be in for an unpleasant shock at some point in the future, whether it's during nursing school, CRNA school, or when our legislators decide that universal healthcare is the "right" thing to do.

It's good to see you revisiting this thread and reading everyone's opinions. It's also good that you have concern for the job security and salary that you are earning in the future. Some people are sensitive about their level of responsibility and pay (and fear that it may be threatened in the future) and therefore you will always receive a little bit of hostility when inquiring about nurse pay, especially when they stereotype you as a "dumb freshman". Don't let their short-sightedness force you into thinking that you have always been in it for the money. There are always many reasons to enter a field of study, and the ability to afford your life goals (starting a family, opening an antique shop, buying a strip club) will always be contingent on your salary. Always be honest with yourself, believe in yourself, and never lose sight of your goals. It's that goal six years down the road that is the reason for all of your hard work now.

Oh yeah: and work hard keep a 4.0 GPA. Remember that you're competing with people from community colleges that cheat on their online classes.

[HenryH]

Patricosuave, thanks for your post and insight.

Since I started this thread, I have completed almost 4 years of college and will graduate either this May or during the summer. I think my (and others') concerns of an oversupply of anesthetists (both CRNA and AA) is especially relevant today as I have repeatedly heard murmurs of the ever-increasing numbers of graduating CRNA's resulting in jobs becoming more scarce in any location deemed moderately desirable.

Before I take "the plunge" and apply to schools, what do you guys think of the potential oversupply of anesthetists that could be brewing over the next few years? Are jobs being filled that quickly? Remember... no matter how much you enjoy a profession, the schooling and degree are both worthless if you can't even find a job.

[Southbound]

HenryH,

What did you end up deciding?

[choco80]

I just discovered this thread now! Henry, what did you end up deciding?

[tahoe77]

Thanks for your reply, apaisRN. I understand that gaining admittance to/completing CRNA school is an arduous journey that is landmarked by countless hours of studying, and more studying, and more studying, and...

However, I'm pretty excited about starting the BSN program at school this year. If you glance several posts up the page, it's obvious that math isn't my strongest academic skill, and that's one of the realities that turned me away from enrolling in a pre-medical curriculum. I look at the situation from this perspective:

If I go pre-med., sure, I might be able to squeeze out a 3.2 science GPA. However, if I go the nursing route, there's no doubt that I'll likely graduate at the top of my class.

I'm not trying to sound egotistical by saying this, but it's true -- these types of classes (read: everything but math) are just painfully easy for me. However, I realize that there are classes that will be inevitably difficult (the anat./phys. class at my college is notoriously hard). When I did the nursing class in highschool, though, my teacher (who is an RN) pulled me aside and told me that I'd be able to glide through a BSN with flying colors. Of course, a few weeks later we had to do a career report, and I told her I wanted to be an anesthesiologist, she flipped out about how "we don't NEED all these folks bein' doctors!"

(FYI: she's one of those psychopath nurses who has female nurse friends who are lightyears more knowledgeable than every male doctor within a 500-mile radius, and, speaking of male docs, they're all chauvinistic pigs who care about nothing but money and the security of their own career, blah blah...)

But, yeah, nursing classes have always appealed to me, and, unlike many pre-medical students, I want to enjoy myself during my college years and continue to exercise, take piano lessons and -- buckle-up for this one, folks -- have a life outside of school! I'm not stereotyping the pre-meds as lumpy, lifeless pieces of smart-dough, but the students I know devote way, way, way more time to studying blah subjects than I would ever want to.

On a side note, if I did decide to take the pre-medical prerequisites (in the event I choose to go the Anesthesiologist Assistant route, instead), would it be feasible to take the pre-reqs at a community college over a few summers? Does anyone know if AA schools would accept community college credits (sorry if I'm asking on the wrong forum about this)?

Thanks,

Henry

I think you really don't understand what you are getting into. Nursing school is not easy. For me

it was easy from the academic prespective but very difficult from the rotations and dealing

with snooty nurses perspective. I personally have at this point put more years

into getting into CRNA school than is necessary to complete the premed route.

I honestly wish I had gone the medical route at this point because at least I would

be a doctor at the end and wouldn't have to deal with all the nurse-nurse violence

which is absolutely rampant everywhere I've been.

There is no easy way. You have to do the work. period. You could go the PA route, but

that is no cake walk either. All health care jobs are pretty hard. People leave the profession

all the time because of the stress, the abuse from administration, from patients, from families.

you have to love it.