AL bug

I can't give personal experience in this area, but I have observed some of my classmates dealing with the stress of families while in school. Many people in our class have children and make it work. We started school May 2001. One woman had a baby Dec 20 2002 and has a year old baby at home (not planned that way). But another lady has a baby who was about 6 months when we started and she is doing fine. With all that said, DH and I have chosen to wait until I graduate to have children. I will be 27 when I graduate. So, to add to the rambling, it can be done, but I don't think it would be pleasant.

Absolutely go to CRNA school ASAP if you get accepted. I think no one is really prepared for the difference in nursing and anesthesia. It is awesome. Do not hesitate. I also am 25 now and could not get here fast enough. I do not regret all the hard work and much more hard work to come.

Where did Ann go????

CAMC does not differentiate between in-state and out-of-state. Cost is about $26,000 for 27 month program. MHCA from Marshall University. BTW...Charleston is the capitol city and is not as backward as people may think West Virginia is (no offense to WV folks-I'm from AL) They do transplants and everything here...no problem with getting cases as far as I know and great passing rate on cert exam.

I worked in MICU in a large teaching hospital and got in to school. Another nurse from our unit went to CRNA school. Three nurses from our CCU, 3 from our SICU, and several from CVICU have gone to anesthesia school this yr. People from all these units have gone in the past also. Main focus is taking care of critically ill patients, no panicking in crisis situations, using vasoactive drugs, vents, swan-ganz catheters, etc. Any unit you work in that gives you these experiences will be sufficient but you have to convince the interviewers that you know what you are doing with all the "stuff". Anyway...good luck with the process. We know how difficult and involved it is.

Kaleigh, When I was researching anesthesia programs last year, most everyone condisdered one year to be a resident. However, some schools waive the out-of-state tuition. Check and see if they offer that. I would assume if you are in the state over a yr you will have no problem.

Most schools want a year of critical care experience. Some say that has to be ICU. Some will accept ER, PACU, and other units if you can convince them you are competent in the critical care areas(hemodynamics, pharm, etc.). If you have some experience in one of these other areas, then you can use that and apply to the schools that accept them. If not you have to go on your ICU experience. Another consideration is that application deadlines for 8/03 are now or very soon. You can't apply to school before you graduate. With that said, 8 months in any area ain't gonna get you in. We all understand that you want to start in Fall '03, but it can't happen. The fact is you don't graduate until 12/02. That's when you happen to have come into the system. So easy admission does not mean 8 months of experience in any program. Easy admission may be an option for 01/04 or 05/04, but not for 8/03. MUSC-Charleston, SC starts in Jan. CAMC- Charleston, WV starts in May. There are others that I don't know right off hand. We all understand the question and the answer is you are going to have to work in the ICU (if that's where you have a job already) for a full year.

don't know where you live, but look at anesthesia-nursing.com and see all the programs' admission requirements

sorry to be of no help, but I didnt' apply there because out of state tuition was $42,000.

After reading my posts, I don't think they made a whole lot of sense. I think we have done a remarkable job of screwing up the intent of your question. I hope this clears up my former excuse for an answer. This is my final answer: Stick with the sciences for your MS, too. I would advise MSX or MS in some type of admin.

By the way, none of them have a PhD, and the program has an excellent turnout and passing rate for boards. Another point: I applied to 5 schools and none of them required a BSN. The program I am in now offers Master of Health Care Administration. I think any program would say its degree has its benefits. I don't know why a MSN would be any more adventageous to you for teaching than another administration degree or some of the others that are offered. (I don't have to do any nursing research either :) )

Hey Doug, I am in anesthesia school now, so I can only tell you the degrees my instructors have. I have only seen one person on this board who said he was an instructor at Southern Missouri, I think. We have three didactic instructors and they have MS in Nurse Anesthesia, MS in Human Resourses, and MS in Nursing. They all have strong clinical background. Personally, if I were taking the path to teach later, I would stick to the sciences. We have Anatomy&Phis., Chemistry, Physics, Pharmacology, etc. I think a program would look more fondly at a strong science background than nursing, but I am not in love with the nursing field either. I only got a BSN because it took a year less than a science degree, and I was in a hurry to get to CRNA school. Are you a nurse now or plan to go to CRNA school to become an instructor? In my advice to anyone who is planning on becoming a CRNA, whether you plan to teach or not, I would get ADN and BS in Biology, Chemistry, etc. I don't think the classes that I took for BSN had one thing to do with anesthesia and were annoying to have to take. I love the sciences and they are so much more pertinent to anesthesia. Hope this helps. :)

9 men, 16 women in my class. 5 of the men have children and 7 of the women have at least one child. Some of the women have babies less than a year old and one girl who has an 8 month old baby is 3 months pregnant, not planned. All this to say that it can be done, but it takes sacrifice. Many of the women are going to CRNA school now so they can work part-time, spend time with their families in the future, and still have a good income. Hope this helps, but it will ultimately be your decision. Good Luck. bug

I didn't shadow until after I had been working in the ICU for a while. One reason was I wanted to have some clue what they were doing before I got there. I was applying to CRNA school at this time, so I had a good idea and just wanted to make sure this is what I wanted to do. Call the anesthesia dept and ask to speak to the chief CRNA if they have one or MDA or whoever is in charge of their anesthesia dept. Tell that person you are planning to go to anesthesia school and want to some shadow a CRNA. Ask when would be a good time for them. Tell them you want to go on a busy day and see a variety of types of anesthesia. If you have any nursing experience, you will know a little of what they are doing when you get there. They are usually good to "narrate" while they are working. If you don't know what they are doing, wait until a time that is not as busy and ask them. Ask about their hours, shifts, relationships with RN,MDA,other CRNA's,etc.

sikofitall, You apparently came in on a string of posts from another site. The posts that contain all those moron's comments are from a student docs website. They were posted here to let us see what was going on at that site. Dig back a little further before you say anything else about the site. I will not post on the student docs website for the reason that I can't think of a professional way to say what I think of the losers there. My greatest concern is that most of them will graduate and get to practice and make some timid nurse feel bad before an experienced nurse has the opportunity to make a fools of the egotistical jerks.