crna08

I personally know of people who passed at 170 and others that failed at 100. Quit trying to second guess yourself. Whats done is done. After all, if you did not pass, get up on that horse and ride it again. I know of which I speak. I failed the first time at 170, my friend passed at 170 and I passed the second time at 100. Even then I did not feel confident of passing. I wanted the computer to give me more questions, LOL! I was sure I failed the second time. The advantage of taking the exam the second time, is that I was able to read the questions more objectively, instead of getting caught up in the extraneous. Good luck, don't beat yourself up and get out your favorite text book and peruse through it, just in case.

It's really dependent on where you work, the number of CRNA's and the willingness of the group to be flexible and creative. If you are hospital based, you will need to do call for the after hours and weekends, but that should be evenly shared within the group so its not likely you will have to every weekend. If you are employed in an outpatient setting, chances are you will work M-F. If you decide to be an independent contractor, you can work as much or as little as you desire. As you see, there are no hard and fast rules in this profession. Hope this helps.

The faculty does try their best to set up cllinicals in your home town, but the hospitals in your area needs to be cooperative and crna friendly. So far in my class, only one student doesn't have a hometown clinical site and has to drive 2 hours. But that should only be temporary, hopefully. Good luck on your quest!

It really is distant learning. The first class has a man that does fly in from Texas. My class has people from Michigan, TN, KY and Maryland. The advantage is not having to move in order to attend a class 5 days a week, but one has to consider what is good for them and their family. Plus, because you are not in classroom 5 days a week; your class is your home office. There has to be a lot of self discipline, organizational management and family education. The kids and spouse suddenly think you are a stay at home mom/dad and now do the things you never could before! Hah! One also needs to consider the social isolation. Because you don't go to a classroom, the only social interaction, at least for me, is the other 2 people in class that has become our own little pod. And that interaction is by phone and e-mail. Hope this helps?

Are you kidding? I just completed my first year of CRNA school and will turn 46 in March. You are only as old as you allow yourself. My friend in the class in 50! We do better than some of the younger ones.

Some folks still work a limited amount; 1-2 shifts a month. The teaching staff made it very clear that if the grades deterioate they will ask the student to make a choice. I personally do not work because this is now my full time job until graduation. As far as being more competitive? I do not know. I know that they accept 25-30 students and I think for the current class there were close to around 300 applicants.

When I was a 17 year old CNA I worked evening shift and floated to all the floors. Part of the PM care was going from patient to patient and asking if they wanted a back rub with an option of lotion or alcohol. I think it was a wonderful way for patients to unwind and have one on one time with someone. A lot of stuff was told to me that I was able to pass on to my nurses that they were unaware of but had a need to know. Don't know if it is a part of care today or not. Maybe somewhere. These have been a wonderful walk down memory lane. I had forgotten about the Stryker frames, clinitest, acetests, water on the transducers and coke to unclog NG tubes. Did anyone else ever have to wrap Nipride tubing from the bag to the hub? Don't want it to turn into cyanide after all! These really need to be compiled and saved for future generations so they can appreciate how different things were just a few short years ago.

When you had to switch out and carry the cardiac monitor to another room if that monitor only had 1 plug in for hemodynamics and you needed two. They were bohemoths at the time, too! And yes, I've done the CVP with a glass manometer! Cardiac patients were not allowed out of bed, had to use a bedpan for BM's. No music, no TV, no newspaper and limited visitors. When paralytic agents were only prn Pavulon and IV demoral; no continous drips. When you reached up in the cabinet for whatever med you needed and mixed it yourself. It was the night charge nurse's duty to do the stock drug reordering. Personal protective equipment was only for the weak! It was a badge of honor to have blood on your shoes! LOL! Definately remember doing decub care with a heat lamp and maalox, but for some reason, we put suger in the maalox and made a paste. Then we dried out the wound bed and couldn't figure out why they never healed! Wearing a nursing cap in the ICU and getting it caught on the draperies. Listening to the patients black and white manual TV that we carried into his room while the Challenger exploded. It's one of those things you always remember what you were doing when... Suction cannisters were not disposible. They had to be emptied, scrubbed and then autoclaved on the unit. Nobody owned their own scrubs, unless you "forgot" and took the hospitals' home with you. Cute little puppy's and angels to individualize yourself did not exist. You came to work in street clothes, changed into scrubs and left in your street clothes. Definately remember soaking the inner cannulas of trachs and cleaning them with the little wire brushes. My, haven't we come a lonnnggg way!

I'm in the second CRNA class at MSU, called co-hort 2. The first class doesn't graduate until next year. Because this program is the only one in the country its hard to compare it to anything else, although other schools have expressed an interest and our director has provided assistance to those schools. Don't know who they are though. My impression: there is a lot of critism that this is web based and you can't learn anesthesia on the web. Entirely correct. It is not web based. It is distance learning. The successful student is one with strong critical care skills, strong science background, is self motivated and has critical thinking skills. No one holds your hand to tell you what chapters to read. If the topic is regional anesthesia, you are expected to use your resources to learn all you can about that topic. The director is highly respected in the field. He's on a first name basis with the authors of my anesthesia text books, he's even written some of the chapters. The premise is you purhase a lap top (Dell) along with all the text books. This lap top is your life. No one else in my family is allowed to touch it. Each time you come to campus, every 3 weeks, you have lab time and take your exams. The lectures are on a disc that you are provided with each time and you are tested on those subjects while on campus. Lab time is spent with Sim Man (computer generated pt with monitors, anesthesia machine etc that can give you scenerios) or learning how to provide regionals; practicing on the mannequin to insert a spinal or epidural or airway mangement. We do everything in the lab before we go into the OR. We may not be proficeint but at least if the preceptor asks us about MAC or what induction agents we want to use, we should be able to answer somewhat coherantly. Advantage: you can still have a life, at least somewhat. If you need to take the kids to school or soccer, you can do that as long as you are able to time manage to keep up with your studies. Organizational skills and flexibilty is really key. Another advantage: You will graduate with an MSN which means as an advance nurse degree, you are not limited to which state you practice in. If you already have an MSN such as a practicing clinical FNP, there are those classes (thesis, Health assessment) you won't need to take. Hope this helps.

Jen: There is a huge diffference in MSU vs. CAMC's program. MSU provides a MSN whereas CAMC grads have a masters Health Care Administration. This results where you are unable to practice as a CRNA in several states without the advance NURSING degree unless you already held liscensure as an RN in that state. So if you plan to travel you will be limited on those states to practice in. I agree that not having pass rate statistics are concerning since they have not graduated a class yet and any new program always has growing pains. Good luck to those that interviewed and were accepted. It's a tough program but doable if you have time management skills.:smiley_ab :smiley_ab :smiley_ab Treasa, I've been in a CRNA program for 8 months now. I'm also a mom and still get the guilt trips with "you never spend any time with me...." Sometimes I will get up at 4 am in order to study so I can spend time with the family. My co-student- friend has 4 children all pre school age and she studies after she puts the family to bed. School is tough on everyone and everyone needs to do what is right for their family. And keep reminding them that it will all be worth it after you graduate.