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Happy to help! At some point in the Spring you'll get matched with a junior and senior mentor who are great for bouncing questions off/telling you what to expect, etc. It's a little stressful in the meantime though not knowing exactly what the next year holds for you, so feel free to reach out if you've got more questions. Congrats to all y'all who got accepted! It's definitely not an easy 3 years you've got ahead of you, but once you're accepted in the program you've completed the statistically hardest part. Dr Hewer is great as are the rest of the professors and they all want you to succeed, and the completion rate from the program is close to 100% once you're accepted. Don't sweat the Summer semester - a lot of annoying writing assignments and discussion boards, but it's not very demanding (definitely possible to work part-time if you're so inclined). Fall is a little more challenging but you'll still have a lot of free time. Spring is more academically challenging but still not too bad until clinicals start in April, so they slowly ramp up the workload. Enjoy the time off and make the most of your weekends and breaks in the first year!

Your classes will follow a normal university schedule. Clinical runs straight through, but you get a week off at Christmas and occasionally will get another day off (if July 4 falls on a week day you might get that day off). Additionally you get 15 days off from clinical throughout the program, but that includes your sick days as well as personal days So your first year is basically like a typical college student (month long Christmas break!) The next year you get a break between semesters from classes, but your clinicals keep going (eg your second Winter break you're doing clinicals 3 days per week but otherwise off from class for a month). Your last 4 semesters you've got clinicals going 4 days/week so your only break is a week at Christmas, but you only have a seminar class on Monday and an easy online class.

I interviewed the last day of interviews, and got a call at the end of the business day. I would imagine all the initial acceptance calls go out pretty quickly. That said, if you don't get a call, there's still hope. Several of my class were initially wait-listed and one person got an invitation a couple months later who wasn't even on the wait-list! So it's on a rolling basis and even if you don't get an acceptance right away there's still a chance, good luck!

Yeah, the 2000 hours comes easily. Not sure exactly what the final number is, but my guess is somewhere in the 2400-2500 range. The regional training is great. Although I can't speak for other programs, we're lucky that there's no competition from other anesthesia learners (no MDA residents who get all the best experiences). At Mission (the largest hospital we do clinicals at), blocks are done by MDAs, but many of the smaller hospitals are CNRA only and you get to do a lot of regional at those hospitals. A couple hospitals have some regional specialists who do research with blocks and do a lot more than your bread-and-butter brachial plexus blocks + ACBs. I'm not gonna say it's the best school in the nation for regional, but from talking to friends in other programs, I think it's fair to say we get more experience than the average SRNA student.

I don't want to say exactly what they questioned you on (and it probably varies year to year). I will say that some of it is geared towards your experience - they want to know how well you know your job. So if you work in a CV ICU, they're not gonna be throwing a bunch of neuro questions at you. There will be some general knowledge questions though, CCRN type stuff. I don't have any really specific advice as to what they're looking for. It'll be 4 professors and a student, each one is probably looking for something slightly different, and each one has some input into the total score/grading they do for each candidate. "Be yourself" is kinda tacky advice but it's the best I can say. Try to paint yourself in a positive light while not boasting/coming off as stuck up is good advice for any interview.

Congrats on upping your GRE! The program is somewhat front-loaded. First (Summer) semester is a bunch of classes that are required for accreditation (EBP, stats, economics) and isn't anesthesia related. Then two semesters of classes to give you a basic framework for anesthesia. Clinicals start towards the end of the first Spring semester. At first it's just once per week and then over the coming semesters, the clinical aspect ramps up and the class load dwindles down. It's definitely no cakewalk. It's stressful and you don't really have time to get everything done (especially the readings), but you prioritize your time and figure out how best to manage it. I will say that pretty much no one fails on account of grades. If you put in the work, you'll do fine. It's fairly rare for anyone to drop out, but when they do it's because of life circumstances (usually a big illness or something along those lines). The professors want you to succeed, and they're not trying to weed anyone out. Once you're in the program they want you to graduate, so that's really reassuring. Everyone's a little different when it comes to clinicals and stress levels there. You start your clinicals at Mission, and many of the CRNAs there are WCU grads and they don't expect a ton from you starting off. I've honestly not been stressed at all with clinicals, you've always got a CRNA in the room with you and starting off all you really do is attempt to DL patients and maybe push induction drugs in fairly easy cases, then you grow into making more decisions over time. Most CRNAs say they wouldn't go through school again, but they're glad they did it once. Talking to friends in other programs, I'm glad I ended up at WCU though. It's a great program, your professors know you well and you're set up to succeed. The first semesters are pretty easy too, so it's not 3 straight years of stress, the second year is generally considered the hardest, and by the last year you're just in clinical 4x/week and working on your project.

No advice on the GRE specifically, I know they look at it, but I don't think it plays a huge part of their decision. I didn't do a mock interview, but it isn't a bad idea if you want to. I was on the fence about applying the year I did (considered postponing a year). I decided I'd put out an application and worse case if I didn't get accepted at least I'd be more knowledgeable about the process. So I went into the interview with low expectations, which helped. Several classmates who interviewed at multiple schools told me they thought WCU's interview process was more laid back than others they interviewed with. They did stump me with a couple questions, which wasn't unexpected. When that happened I didn't totally avoid the question, but I talked about what I would do and focused on what I knew regarding the scenario that was presented. I tried to be confident but not cocky, admit when I didn't know the exact answer but also did so in a way that highlighted what I did know surrounding the question/scenario. I treated it like a scenario-based nursing interview. Practice and be ready to talk about a scenario or two. I don't remember exactly how they ask the questions but it's in the lines of "tell me about a time you _______" (insert "had to use critical judgment" "had a disagreement with a coworker or MD" "had a patient decompensate and how you reacted"). The professors are great at WCU and while they want to know that you're knowledgeable, they also want to see that you're eager to learn and can accept instruction. I know that's all pretty broad info, but if you have more specific questions don't hesitate to reach out. Good luck!

Hi all, I'm a current SRNA at WCU. It's a great program (not easy, but none are). Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the program!

Some people say the 2nd year Summer is hardest. Some say it's the 2nd Spring, it's different for different people. As the clinical days ramp up, your classroom learning drops off, so by the time you're in Spring of your second year you're only really studying for one 'real' class with a second online class that's easy and then working on your senior project. I personally don't study nights other than to maybe look over notes for an hour after clinical, for me it doesn't stick so I'd rather get sleep and push studying to the weekend if need be. It gets tough but it's doable (as the low attrition rates attest). The other good thing to remember is no one really fails because of grades. If you put in the work, you're gonna do fine and pass, the only times people can't complete the program it's because of life circumstances that cause them to withdraw (eg a divorce, significant illness, etc). The amount that people spend studying is pretty variable, and you'll figure out where you need to be. Some people can look through the material a couple times and know they'll be fine to make a low A, other people have to study a lot more. Generally though people tend to over-study trying to do their absolute best, which is great but the amount of studying it takes to make a mid to low A on a test is maybe 6-8 hours. To bump that up to a high A though is easily double that. So a lot of it comes down to are you content with low As and some Bs, or do you want to be making 97% everytime.

Hi all, I'm currently in the program, used allnurses before getting accepted to the program and figured I'd reach out to those in the upcoming class to see if anyone had any questions about the program and to give a general idea of what the next year holds for y'all. First off congrats! It's an awesome program, the professors a great, they want you to succeed, and they're willing to work with you and make accommodations to help you succeed once you're in the program. Summer semester is all online. Several people in our class were out of state for most of the Summer. You can definitely continue to work over the Summer, most classes are recorded and if you can't join live via skype you can watch them later. The classes are kind of a drag. Not hard content-wise but a lot of discussion posting and writing. You'll be knocking out some of the classes that are low in anesthesia-related knowledge but required for doctoral-level accreditation. If you care about grades, it's very easy to get all As over the Summer. The fall semester starts to ramp up intensity slightly, but working PRN (part time even) would still absolutely be doable. You have several days off each week, so you've got plenty of time to study and still have weekends free. The Spring gets a lot heavier content-wise, and clinical start late in the semester. When clinical start is when it really gets tough because you lose your study days. Over the 2nd year your class load diminishes and you work up to spending 4 days in the hospital. Biggest advice I can give is you'll have a much better time if you're willing to compromise. Allow your standards to drop when it comes to grades, keep yourself in the game by stepping away from school at time and taking care of yourself. Most people in school are very driven individuals who are used to making high A's all the time and being at the top of their class, but those standards are tough to maintain while also maintaining a personal life. The amount of work needed to get mid to high A's in the harder classes is exponentially higher than what it takes to get B's/low A's. In the end, no one cares what your GPA in CRNA school is but you, and if you're willing to accept slightly less than perfection on tests, you'll have a much better time. Congrats on acceptance and welcome to a great program!

I never heard anything from them. Last I heard was maybe in October I got an email saying they'd be looking at applications into the new year. Im very curious what their stats for acceptance were this year. I had a 331 GRE and 3.92 + 3 years ICU experience and didn't get an interview. Seems like they hit the diversity questions pretty hard on the interview though, I'm wondering if they have a certain demographic they are looking for.

The way my hospital has pitched the vaccine is not particularly reassuring. We're told we need to be monitored for 15 minutes after the vaccine, and should not get it if we've had reactions to medications in the past. I'm gonna wait and get one down the road once it's had more time to be observed.

I think something happened during the HIV crisis and some sort of legislation was passed to prevent nurses from declining to care for patients? It's not enforced at my hospital.

Thanks! Tried to PM you but it's not letting me (says I'm allowed 0 messages per day), maybe because I'm a new member. Congrats on your acceptance!

Congrats to all who got accepted. Do any of you mind sharing your GPA/GRE/experience? I applied for the Spring deadline, didn't get an invite and was told I might be contacted at a later date. GRE was 331, undergrad GPA 3.92, 7 years total experience, 3 in ICU. Thought I had a fairly strong chance but still haven't heard anything other than an email in October to monitor my College Net Application Portal. Have logged in to the portal but don't see anything there to monitor other than that it shows my application as having been submitted. Got accepted and have a deposit in at WCU, but was hoping to get in at WF as my top choice.