Nurse956

Congratulations!!!!!!!! I am so excited for you! Good luck in school~

I think it would take you just as long because you have to get accepted to an accelerated program which is usually tougher than a non-accelerated program, get through the 12-15 months of school, get a job in an ICU (which many do not hire new grads), and then work for a year, apply (which is almost a year long process) and then spend 2-3 years in CRNA school. You are easily looking at 4 1/2+ years to do CRNA. It's an awesome opportunity if you are up for it, but I don't think you will shave off any time.

Just wondering if anyone has been invited for an interview (or knows anyone who has) at UNC Charlotte for the October rounds? It says on their website that you have to have everything in 6 weeks ahead of the interviews which are in October. I had all of my stuff in by mid-August except my GRE which for some reason took 3 1/2 weeks to report my scores... Haven't heard a word and just wondering if I missed the deadline. Also, anyone have advice on North Carolina schools with regards to how they interview? Thanks in advance!

Since you are in your first year of nursing school, right now the most important thing is focusing on your current classes. Try to really study and understand the information and keep your grades high so that you'll be competitive come application time. You could start shadowing people in that profession to make sure this is really what you want to do. My focus changed multiple times when I was in school as I realized that some things I thought I'd be perfect at would have made me miserable in the long run. Perhaps get a job as a PCA in an ICU to make sure you really like the icu environment and to possibly get you an 'in' after graduation. The other things such as GRE, certifications, work experience, etc. you really can't do anything about until after you are graduated. The most important bit of all this for you right now is what I first said. If you search these posts a huge source of anxiety comes at application time seems to be gpa, its very difficult and time consuming to pull it up after you have graduated. Good luck with school!

This is for current SRNA's and recent grads. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but when I graduated nursing school (BSN) I was asked many times during my orientation where I went to school. This seems like a natural question but I found that many times it came after me making a good clinical decision and perhaps maybe some not so great ones. I over time noticed there were certain stereotypes about the types of nurses we were based on our schools. For instance, new grads from school A, which concentrated heavily on nursing theory struggled clinically, where as school B was heavily clinically based and though there school was not as highly ranked those nurses settled quicker into their positions but would make mistakes when they lacked the understanding behind a concept, and so and so on for each school. My question for CRNA students and grads is not what your rank is, or how hard is it to get in to your program, or even what your pass rate on boards is but...how strong and confident do you feel in what you've learned? Do you feel prepared or that you are really being prepared enough to go out into the field? How do you feel you stack up against other students at other schools in areas of performance and decision making. Please share your thoughts and what school you are at

Just wanted some opinions. I am trying to make a decision about what would be the better course to take... I graduated with honors with my BSN however my science gpa is just average, infact I got an A in my A&P1 and my second semester slipped and ended up with a C. So here are my thoughts, I could retake A&P 2 to increase the strength of my sciences GPA b/c I know I could get an A however I think at this point I have a good working knowledge of this material and so it might look less credible bc it was easier the second time around (given I've been a nurse already this time around). Then I thought well I'll take physics because it relates to anesthesia (gas laws and such) however my concern is fitting a class and a lab into my schedule at the moment. I have 2 jobs already... one as a nurse and one working free for a a shelter (which I love.) There is a local school which offers a grad level course in genetics for nursing. This is a science though I am not sure how they (an admissions board) would look at this course. It does work nicely with my schedule. Thus my dilemna...so give me your opinion...retake a&p2, physics or grad level genetics? Anyone ever been in a similar situation? Anyone recieve feedback from a school regarding the best way to make a more average math/science gpa look more competitive. Thanks for your time! :uhoh21:

Yes you did. You acted cautiously and competently. Only patients know how they feel but sometimes B/P, and pain meds are a catch 22. Sometimes what the pt says and whats going on (behavior such as seemingly sleeping peacefully and vitals wnl) makes us question our next action.You did the right thing and whats more is you had the backing of the patients doctor. Like I have been told numerous times, though it never sinks in until after I'm already upset and stressed over it for days, is that you can't please everyone. I have had incidents where I give 110% and the pt finds the tiniest most trivial detail to make me feel incompetent over, and you can't tell them "you are overreacting." Just knowing that you did the best you could for that patient with the intentions of helping not hurting is sometimes the only real validation of your actions in sticky situations like this. Them threatening to sue every nurse makes it a stressfull environment and I am curious if you management has spoken with the family to explain the POC and perhaps how their behavior may make it difficult for nurses to feel comfortable working around them. Also the MD should be responsible for coming in during rounds the following day and backing you up on the meds decision. Those are just my 2 cents...

I am 23 and I've had patients ask me if I am 12! Used to bother me not for me but for them because if I were in an ICU I would be a little nervous if some guy who looked my little brothers age walked up and said he was my nurse. Now I just have fun with it to put everyone at ease in the already stressful unit... when someone says I look like whatever adolescent number they pull out I say something to the effect of "Yes, well I'm a child prodigy." Many times they've actually believed me and I have to tell them I am just kidding and assure them I am several years older than I look. :)

I know this is an old post but it hit close to home. I recently had a patient who was chronic afib and had surgery and postop they were still in afib with low B/P and CI's. We bolused with amio and started a drip but later in the shift it started looking like PVC's, I mean textbook PVC's, then 5-7 beat runs of VTACH. I called the physician who had me march it out. It was pretty regular but would have an irregular beat here or there. The doc said it was probably abberant afib which was new to me at the time. About an hour later the pt went into sustained VTACH then into V-fib and despite our best efforts could not be revived. Just a note so that people stay serious about these beats.

Thank you so much for your responses, I am so glad I found this board. Writing it all out and getting it off my chest made me feel 10X better but then your posts really helped and brought up some good points. You are right about what we should take to heart and as soon as I read that I thought about the daughter of my pt and how after the code, even though I was sure she would blame me because I was the nurse and I couldn't fix it. Instead she hugged me and told her family how I had worked hard at her mothers bedside all night long. She thanked me for letting her stay in the room while I worked. (I set her up a recliner to sleep by the bedside to comfort her mom).) She said no other nurse would let her stay back there and those last few hours meant so much to her. Therefore I am replacing my prior ramblings with this because I decided the hurt I was feeling from the prior incident with my other patient had received too much airtime and thought already. I know my career will be full of good days and bad. Thank you for bringing the meaningfull, good memories of today to the forefront. The feelings of appreciation and love and respect I received from this patients family overshadows and burns right through one miserable patients attempts to belittle me. I know how much people matter to me and how hard I try and that that may not be good enough for some people but today it was...and it feels much better to find that comfort.