My career plan feels shaky

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  1. Is it worth it for an adult pre-RN to set CRNA (Nurse Anesthetist) as a long term goal?

    • Yes
    • No
    • 0
      Maybe, I'll explain in a post.

3 members have participated

Hey everyone.

I'm a pre-nursing student basically right now, I'll explain my situation before I move to the actual questions, so you guys have some info to go on:

1) Worked at hospitals for 1½ years as a scribe before any actual medical training

2) I became a medical technician for the Air Force which is EMT training plus some nursing courses

3) I became a flight medic in the Air Force which meant more nursing courses

4) I have 3 years worth of University undergrad as a pre-med biology student. All of my gen ed is 100% done, but I only have 8 semesters of lower division bio, and only got intro chem and chem 1 out of the way (no organic or bio yet). I took an anatomy class but hadn't taken the physiology counterpart yet before I left the university, and I took microbiology class but it was Microbiology: Virology” and none of the RN programs accept that in place of general micro because it didn't cover bacteria. That means I just need a semester that includes A+P 1 and general microbiology before I start the program. That will be cake given all the knowledge I already have on those subjects.

–All in all I actually have 221 credit hours worth of college coursework but no degree to show for it because I never fully completed my two Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) degrees or my undergrad. 38 of those credit hours are from nursing specific coursework identified on my CCAF transcript.

5)I spent 2 years homeless and jobless following a major mental breakdown that was the result of a very ugly end to my military career (don't worry, I still got an honorable discharge out of it).

6)I'm getting back on my feet and a huge part of it was ditching the pre-med idea because I realized I'm in my 30s now and if I stick to the med school goal, I won't be officially starting the stable part of my career until I'm in my mid 40s. I am eager to get back in the med field and I already have a foot and a half in the door on the nursing career. Sadly my EMT, CPR/BLS, and ACLS certs have all been long expired, but at least I have proof that I can pass those tests.

7) I'm own a house in Colorado but I'm currently staying in California with my mother as part of my rehabilitation. I've been here 4 months and have already lost 60 lbs, quit drinking, am seeing counseling, etc… and I'm planning on taking a semester of fun” classes at the local community college here before I head back home to Colorado in the fall. I was too late to get into the prereq classes I need by the time I decided this is what I'm going to do.

8)I have 9 months left (out of 36) of Post 9/11 GI Bill (aka Chapter 33 GI Bill). I am working on getting disability through the VA, once that goes through, I will be able to use 12 months of vocational rehabilitation (Voc Rehab) student aid to cap off the 48 months of military education benefits I'm allowed. Then by the time that's up I should be back in good standing financially, and can just use pell grant, work money, and saved GI Bill money I might have to pay for any semester I have left (if any).

9)I have been accepted into the RN program in Colorado. So once I get those prereqs out of the way I'm all set.

Current plan:

1) Take fluff semester since I can't get my prereqs, which will get me back into the college mindset that I haven't had in years.

The classes I've signed up for aren't actually fluff, I just don't need them as prereqs. They are good classes though:

–Biopsychology (can actually be a pre req for certain some programs I've seen)

–Lifespan Development (I got the developmental psychology prereq waived from other psych classes I took, but I want to take this version anyway)

–Medical Terminology (I'm obviously not required to take this, but it will be good for a brush up that I sorely need)

–Kinesiology (I think this will be great knowledge to have as a future RN – only physical class, the other 3 are online)

2) Take actual prereq semester in Colorado. A&P and Micro are 4 credit hours so I'll just need to find one more 4 credit class to get full time student aid.

3) Complete RN program at same college

4) Get job as RN

5) Get into RN –> RN BSN program (hopefully paid for by an employer) as soon as humanly possible

6) Get NP as soon as possible after that.

7) DNP maybe? Who knows.

My actual questions for you actual nurses! (finally, right?)

1) Does anyone know how well the RN earned in Colorado transfers to other states?

–An RN at the clinic I go to, told me that California is the best state to get your RN license because the coursework is apparently more intensive or something, and therefore you can transfer easily to any other state.

2) Do any of you have experience with military nursing and how it might affect the nursing core requirements of a civilian RN program?

–Like I said, I have 38 credit hours of nursing classes on my CCAF, and nearly 3 years of in hospital work experience – I understand that a federally regulated college would have different standards and practices than a local college, but SHEESH it would seem INCREDIBLY unjust if all 38 credits count for nothing I have to take every single RN class the same as some fresh out of high school kid who never so much as put a bandaid on someone other than themselves. *exhale*

3) How hard is it to get a specialty you want as an RN or RN BSN?

–All 3 years of my scribe and med tech experience have been ER (and some ICU/CCU), except for the rotations I did for 2 months during school, so I really want to be an ER nurse for comfort reasons but also because I need a job that keeps on my feet doing stuff constantly. It helps me stay fit but also I've had really high intensity jobs my whole adult life, so jobs that require a lot of sitting and have more down time make me insane.

4) Is nurse anesthetist something worth shooting for?

–It's the holy grail of nursing salaries, according to google, which makes me wonder what the catch is. I'm curious because I was originally planning to be a surgeon, so I thought CRNA might be a way to still have a key job working in an OR, but as an NP instead of an MD. I can only imagine the pay is much higher than other NP and DNP disciplines because it's a much more difficult job to have and/or get into. I thought maybe the costs must have been really high (because I heard that many times about anesthesiologists) but google says CRNA average annual malpractice averages $3,900 which seems reasonable. So what's the deal, guys? I guess I'll just throw it up on a poll, if that works.

5) Does anyone here have experience with opening up a small private practice as an NP or DNP, that could maybe answer some questions privately?

Thank you so much if you made it this far. It seems like I have an okay plan on paper, but I can't help but feel like this is a huge bag of snakes where I can only straighten out one snake at a time while the others curl back up.

It's ok to be interested in being a CRNA but keep it quiet. It rubs people the wrong way because it seems like every pre-everything student everywhere is planning to be one without even understanding what it means to be a nurse.

CA and CO are pretty competitive nursing markets so you might not get ICU as a new grad. You need ICU for CRNA school.

I don't think it matters to licensing where you go to school as long as you graduate from an accredited program.

Thanks. I wasn't terribly worried about the competitiveness of the state licenses, but I thought I'd ask. It was just something mentioned in passing by one nurse, other than that I never heard about it.

Were you were hospitalized to treat your "mental breakdown"? Are you in a mandated rehabilitation program? (you mention overcoming a problem with alcohol). I don't want to dwell on the negative, but in some states (like mine), you will need to pass a very thorough background check as part of your admission to nursing school & these issues could pose a roadblock. Make sure you investigate the state in which you want to attend a nursing school to determine their rules.

First, thank you for both your informative reply and also for the sentiment about my service.

I've already been accepted into the RN program but I get what you're saying. I was never hospitalized or made to take part in any mandatory treatment programs. My drinking problem was self diagnosed, and the AF and I simply could not agree on how to solve it. In fact, they wanted to force me out of school and into a treatment program that I would have had to pay for with my own health insurance (way to go, Reserves). The ugly divorce I had with the military was actually probably better for me, long term now that you bring this up. The only thing in my records regarding the alcohol stuff is that I was seen twice for voluntary counseling.

I have a counselor I am currently seeing about my depression and things like that, but it's all voluntary stuff I do through the VA. I don't have issues with alcohol anymore, so that's not even part of it.

Make sure that all your pre-requisites are still active. Although there is a variation among programs, it is not unusual for science courses to expire after 5 years. Clinical courses just don't transfer. The primary reason is that (again) program curriculum is not standardized. Although everyone has to include same essential content, they can package it up in any way they choose. Some schools may let you 'test out' of the intro classes, but this is not widely available. On a positive note, if you've already taken these courses in the military, making excellent grades should be pretty easy.

Wishing you absolutely the best of luck on your nursing education.

Yeah I realize more and more that the odds of getting ANY classes accounted for, are next to none. It kind of makes you wish they'd standardize the curriculum. But I don't know enough about that stuff to place such a bold demand on the industry. It is what it is, I suppose.

Thank you again for your help.

Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.

GK-Seedy,

Thank you for your service.

I think you've got a well thought out plan here. Don't worry much right now about grad school stuff right own. After you've been practicing for a while as an RN that will become more clear to you. But it's good to have the General long-term goal.

It may be that you will not get credit for all the classes you took, but make no mistake they will help you.

Your experience may also help you get into a critical care area as a graduate RN. Definitely go for it! And if you do want to do CRNA then you will need ICU specific experience.

It sounds like you are in the right track. Godspeed!

Definitely go for it! And if you do want to do CRNA then you will need ICU specific experience.

It sounds like you are in the right track. Godspeed!

Thank you very much. I guess what I really need laid down is exactly how the progression is supposed to work.

Here's how I thought it worked:

RN --> RN BSN --> NP --> DNP

Now it sounds more like:

RN --> RN BSN --> MSN --> DNP (maybe) --> NP

Is that right? Let's just forget about CRNA for now.

Specializes in Cardiac (adult), CC, Peds, MH/Substance.

Sort of.

All NP specialties require a master's degree in nursing (MSN). There are different specialties with different "typical" requirements. For example, neonatal generally requires 2-3 years of neonatal RN experience to apply. FNP generally requires 1-2 years of RN experience (in whatever, pretty much) to apply. And so on. However, this is not true of all schools. Something to consider is that it's RN experience, generally, not BSN experience. So while this may not end up applying to your situation, theoretically someone could do an ADN, become an RN, and finish their BSN at the same time as applying to MSN programs. Their RN experience would matter, not BSN experience. Additionally, there are direct entry MSN programs that go straight from ADN to MSN. Not all MSNs involve NP credentials. There is an option for post-MSN NP certificates. There is also an option for DNP NP credentials.

Thus, potential paths are:

ADN-RN-Experience-BSN-MSN-NP

BSN-RN-No Experience-MSN-NP

BSN-RN-Experience-DNP-NP

ADN-MSN (Not NP MSN)-PostMSNCert-NP-DNP

BSN-MSN (Not NP MSN)-DNP-NP

And so on.

Basically, you need at least an MSN to be an NP, but there are a lot of paths to get there.

Thank you very much. I guess what I really need laid down is exactly how the progression is supposed to work.

Here's how I thought it worked:

RN --> RN BSN --> NP --> DNP

Now it sounds more like:

RN --> RN BSN --> MSN --> DNP (maybe) --> NP

Is that right? Let's just forget about CRNA for now.

That's actually very helpful. It seems as though I'm going to need to do the first route simply because of my situation.

I'm going to get my RN-ADN as soon as I can, so I can start working and earning an income again. Taking that into account, I feel like it's probably going to take a couple years of just doing steady work before I will be officially back on my feet and ready to start evolving my career.

PLUS! I plan on being very careful with how I choose a specialty. I spent 8 years of my life doing a job I hated because I jumped too soon and didn't think things through when I first joined the military. It may take years of going from RN job to RN job, before I am finally convinced of which path I want to take for BSN/MSN/NP/DNP.

ONE LAST QUESTION!

If I can get them paid for somehow (which I might be able to), would it be helpful for me to get all my expired certifications brought back to current? Those are CPR/BLS (for healthcare providers), ACLS, PALS, and NPR. I'm not sure I would even be allowed to take ACLS or PALS unless I renewed my EMT-I or at least the EMT-B.

Sort of.

All NP specialties require a master's degree in nursing (MSN). There are different specialties with different "typical" requirements. For example, neonatal generally requires 2-3 years of neonatal RN experience to apply. FNP generally requires 1-2 years of RN experience (in whatever, pretty much) to apply. And so on. However, this is not true of all schools. Something to consider is that it's RN experience, generally, not BSN experience. So while this may not end up applying to your situation, theoretically someone could do an ADN, become an RN, and finish their BSN at the same time as applying to MSN programs. Their RN experience would matter, not BSN experience. Additionally, there are direct entry MSN programs that go straight from ADN to MSN. Not all MSNs involve NP credentials. There is an option for post-MSN NP certificates. There is also an option for DNP NP credentials.

Thus, potential paths are:

ADN-RN-Experience-BSN-MSN-NP

BSN-RN-No Experience-MSN-NP

BSN-RN-Experience-DNP-NP

ADN-MSN (Not NP MSN)-PostMSNCert-NP-DNP

BSN-MSN (Not NP MSN)-DNP-NP

And so on.

Basically, you need at least an MSN to be an NP, but there are a lot of paths to get there.

Specializes in Cardiac (adult), CC, Peds, MH/Substance.

You can take ACLS and PALS as a student. NPR? NRP?

Something I just notices is your statement about 12 months of VOC rehab. VOC rehab doesn't have a 12 month limit.

I agree that you should get some exposure before narrowing your path. I thought I wanted to be a CRNA at one point, because it was, yanno, awesome, the school was really hard, and it paid well. Then I shadowed some CRNAs and realized I'd have been bored into a coma, not during school, but for the rest of my life. I chose a different path. A lot of people in nursing discover a passion or passions they never expected.

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