New Grad Looking at ICUs with the intention of CRNA School in a few years

[WSU.Nurse]

Hi all!

I recently graduated and passed my NCLEX (yay!) so now I’m weighing job offers… I love the ICU but I know my end goal is CRNA school which is obviously really competitive. One offer is from a hospital a level II trauma but it’s the biggest in the area so they do get some pretty sick patients, I’d be in their medical ICU (pretty neuro/trauma heavy). The other offer is from Johns Hopkins, level I trauma and I’d be in their SICU. I’m having a hard time deciding where to go because the first offer is from a hospital where I worked as a nurse tech and had clinical rotations at so it’s familiar, in a safe area, they’d pay me more/cost of living is less, I have friends and relationships established, etc. I would be the first new graduate in there ICU so id sort of help pave the way for other new grad in the future and I can already think of a few policies they don’t have that I could help implement. On the other hand, I know CRNA school is supper competitive and Hopkins has a great residency and I’d probably see things there I wouldn’t anywhere else and it would be an amazing opportunity. With that offer though id move across the country to an area that’s not the safest and id have to start working and making new relationships at the same time in a new city (which I’m pretty friendly so not too worried about that). I’m just torn because I don’t know how much the name/trauma level of the hospital plays into the likely hood of acceptance into a future program and although the level II that I’ve been at is comfortable right now I don’t want jeopardize getting into school in the future if I don’t take the level I offer… so I’d appreciate any advice if you know about the application process for CRNA school and what all they look at/for.

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

Couple of thoughts. Familiarity and comfort are nice, but if you will value yourself better, you’ll see the benefits to taking some risks for the prize of moving up.

Re name dropping as a factor for CRNA admission, they’re going to look more favorably on stronger experience. A stronger residency and breadth of experience will teach you things that other applicants might not have.

Re CRNA in general, don’t expect to be competitive for admission to a CRNA program for several years. A lot of your competition will be people with 10 or more years of critical care experience. Meanwhile those years will pass anyway, and you’ll be climbing the clinical ladder in a top-notch place while you make yourself more valuable.

And Baltimore has a lot to offer, except their baseball club. Don’t knock it. Take the leap. You’re young only once and this is a great opportunity. Been there, done that, never regretted a bit of it. 

Finally, I realize this is a comparatively informal platform, but do take a little more care with your written work when you come to writing cover letters and applications. Everybody has the odd typo now and then. However, multiple spelling and grammar errors are not your friends. Have somebody proof anything you intend to send. You’ll be glad about that too.

Good luck! It’s an exciting time.