EMS/ICU/SRNA

Haha! This is exactly what I thought when I was going through nursing school. The instructors/professors did nothing to correct this misconception either (probably thought they would have a lot of dropped out students). The cold reality is that if you wait for the cna's (dont know about the lpn's, dont work with them) to "clean up" your pts the poo will have tatoo'd by then. Trust me, you have a long, brown road ahead of you. Again, this is why I'm in grad school.

Never got used to it, hate it, that's why I'm in grad school. The only units where you would be completely excused from this duty would be non-bedside nursing or advanced practice

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Definately get your grades up while you can. There is a sticky at the top of this forum that should be able to answer your questions

Hey Mike, don't take this personally but it's just my U of Pitt education wanting to say something. In previous threads you kept throwing out the n numbers and the p values of the studies that you cited as proof that they were well conducted pieces of research. Just the edu talking: the p value is simply indicative of the statisical significance. The more subjects that are enrolled in your study,(n) the greater chance that you would detect a statisically significant difference (ie: cheerios reduce you cholesterol). These numbers speak nothing of the internal or external validity of the study. What everyone here was saying was that, depending on your motivation (read: pt turnover and $), there are numerous oppurtunities to skew the results. While I do not have the time or interest to critically appraise the studies that you cited, I do raise an eyebrow when such a large sample size is used and those conducting the research will benefit directly if their "findings" are what they had crossed their collective fingers for. Just wanted to let you know that there is quite a bit more to quality research than the n's and p's. PS: Don't worry, you'll learn this in grad school

BTW, a 3.6 and a 1200 will not blow any program away. Like a CRNA that I shadowed told me: "you're gonna need to bring those grades up to be competitive." (I had a 3.62 and a 1230 GRE when she told me that)

Are you kidding us? First of all, there are not bachelor of ARTS in nursing that I am aware of. And being a "regular RN" is what makes CRNA's special. Like previous poster have said, yes it is more competitive to get into CRNA school than med school b/c of the incredible competitiveness to be accepted. Please never think of this highly respected profession as a "back up plan" (and I'm speaking of being a "regular RN") as you are clearly unfit for it. You should probably work on your spelling for that tooth cleaning application that you are so desperate to fill out.

This has been informative for me reading the back and forth banter through 7 pages of posts. I'm glad that I was able to generate this kind of response. However, I was hoping to get the official AANA/ASA's official stand on this issue. When I spoke to the ED attending that I referenced in my OP he was of the attitude that anesthesia personnel were not necessary for the administration of anesthetics in this setting. Is there a position that the AANA has? Is there restriction on what the ED docs are able to do?

I overheard an ED attending discussing a policy regarding the administration of propofol w/ an RN at work today. Apparently the policy states that propofol or any other medication may be administered to a non-intubated pt if an attending ED/Pulmonary physician is in the room. This would be done for a procedure ie: reduction of a fx....etc. I asked him why anesthesia personnel would not provide the anesthesia. He responded that the ED/Pulmonary physician is able to provide all services that anesthesia could. What do you guys think about this?

You're correct in saying that I have very little insight into your profession as I have lived in PA my entire life and up until OH allowed AA's to work the AA trend has been a southern phenomena. And I will concede that your knowledge of anesthesia is exponentially greater than mine (currently;) ). But to say that you are the equal of a CRNA because you "can do the everything that a CRNA does" is unfounded. First of all, you can not legally manage a patient without an anesthesiologist. Second of all, because you have been trained to perform similar skills does not make you the superior provider. As a paramedic I was able to intubate, perform needle decompression, intraosseous cannulation.....blah blah blah. I can not perform any of those skills as a bachelors prepared RN. Does that mean I was a superior provider as a paramedic? Absolutely not. Did it "appear" that I was a superior provider performing those skills? probably. And because you perform those skills and it "appears" that you are providing the same service it does not neccessarily make it so. And to say that you learned everything in two years that the CRNA did in SIX is also unfounded, simply a matter of mathematics. I am not forgetting that AA's have an undergraduate in any given area but as stated previously in this post it could very well be in elementary education. If I sound a little heated I apologize.....the area in which I practice has been flooded with PA's and there are very few opportunities for NP's to practice and I am concerned that CRNA's may be facing a similar problem in to future.

You are an RN who went to CRNA school then went to AA school? If that were the case do you think that you would have an objective assessment of AA education having already been educated as a CRNA?

I have read all of the AA/CRNA debate threads with great interest as I will soon be entering anesthesia school and ultimately the profession of anesthesia. The big debate seems to be preparation and experience prior to entering anesthesia school whether CRNA or AA. I do not know how to not take the AAs' comments as insults. Are they saying that the nurses on this forum and the nurses that they hand their pt's over to in the ICU and PACU know nothing? Do you really believe that you learn everything that a CRNA does in two years? The CRNA has a minimum of 6 years of focused education learning how to care for pts. (excludes the requisite acute care experience) AA's have 2. And to address one more recurrent theme... AA students may have experience prior to entering AA school. The CRNA student must have experience. Maybe I am missing something in the AAs' arguments ...........................JMHO