COtraumarn

I was lucky. I did move across the country but my wife had just graduated with her OT degree a few mos before so it worked out. She was very supportive and wanted to move to Pittsburgh. Once we got here then we had an oops and had a kid. So it wasn't too bad for the family. For people who have families with jobs and stuff- yes they have to be very supportive b/c your time with them is going to diminish. It helps if there is other family nearby- in laws, parents etc. As far as the mortgage goes- I had to rent my place out. I was hell bent on doing this so we made the sacrifices. This is so far the best decision I have ever made. Good luck to you.

Yeah, I have to agree with the buses as well. Parking is ridiculous in Oakland and very expensive. There are two - 3 major clinical sites directly in Oakland so if you can get close to a bus line that would be very beneficial. Also- the first 8 weeks of the program you are in classes 4-5 days/ week. After that you start clinical so you're not on campus as much but you still have to go at least 2 days a week. Gilli- I love the IPhone. Of course- I have to admit that I am a MAC person and they can come out with a ballpoint pen and I would love it. I love th 3G network and Pgh has good bars (like the commercial). There are a lot of anesthesia apps you can get for it as well. Of course the apps cost anywhere from 5-30 dollars. I honestly haven't used it that much though for clinical. I may have looked up 2 drugs at the most- you just don't have that much time. It is very user friendly. A lot of people in my class have the blackberry and they all seem to love that. They may have thyphon for the Iphone. When I tried it in Dec- it wasn't compatible and I haven't bothered to look back. A lot of clinical sites do have computer that you can get on during your break and put in your info as well .

Robin' Don't know a whole lot about the market there. I did shadow though in Denver before starting school. From talking to my CRNA that I shadowed and a couple that actually gave me anesthesia- the market is pretty saturated but there are still jobs. I worked at Denver Health (the county hospital) and the CRNA's loved it there. That hospital is in downtown Denver. I also know a girl who moved up to Breck and works at a Surgicenter- she loves living in the mountains. Unfortunatley (in my opinion anyway) Denver has a lot of Health One hospitals and I have heard that the group pays very well but the conditions, hours, benefits aren't so great (that is just what I have heard- no experience with it). Another CRNA that did my teeth, said there is plenty of locums and independent work and you can make as much as you want and work as much as you want. Denver is definitely the place where everything happens in CO and it is a GREAT city. I loved it. CO Springs is also a very nice city as well. There is also a newer hospital in Loveland (45 mins) north of Denver that is close to Ft. Collins which a lot of people like that city as well and Loveland is very cute town about 20 mins away from Estes/ Rocky Mtn National Park. Good luck

Hi. Congrats to everybody. I am currently a Pitt student and love it. If you have the opportunity to take some classes- take some. It does lighten the load significantly- especially when you get to the second semester and have 3 day/ week clinicals. To be honest- some of the classes are just busy work crap that you don't want to bother with when studying for Advanced Patho or something. Gilli- As far as Typhon- it does not work with Iphone ( I have one). You could do it through the internet but not a direct app

I am a current student. I have no idea how many seats are left. Some people got in from the first round of interviews and some people will start off of the wait list from last years interview. There are 2 classes. One for Fall and one for Spring and each class has about 25 people (give or take a couple). I found out that I got wait listed about 2-3 weeks after the interview. Yes, the interview is about 4 hrs long. I did a total of 4 interviews and it was by far the least stressful of the 4. They don't ask you to recite the Krebs cycle and figure our swan #'s on the spot. They gather a bunch of info about your experience and present their program. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. good luck

Hi. I am a current student. It is not a panel. It is about a 1.5 hr presentation of the program and then you split up into two groups. One group tours the facilities and WISER (simulator lab). The other group goes and does interview questions. It is you answering questions from two faculty members at a time and then you go to a different room and two more instructors ask you questions. It is not questions about pharmacology or swan's. It is more about your experience and why you want to be a CRNA. They also provide a student for you to sit with and ask whatever you want from a student. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions- by all means email me and ask. I did four interviews and this was BY FAR the least intimidating.

As far as simulations go those aren't bad either. We are all a little nervous. Some people have cried- other have struggled. We all support one another. I know we have scenarios where we are supposed to "think on our feet" and distract the person who is inducing etc.. If we saw a person struggling- we just stopped talking and let them concentrate to do their thing. We never laughed about anyone and to my knowledge have never put anyone down or talked about a person after the fact. The simulations are supposed to be learning experiences without the high stress of actually having a difficult airway in front of you or w/e the scenario is.

Hi LittleChief; I am also a Pitt student in my second semester. I moved from CO as well. Pittsburgh is a world of difference from Denver. The weather is pretty abysmal here and the road system stinks. Rent is pretty cheap though depending on where you live. Pgh is pretty cheap- A lot of students live in the Sq Hill/ Shadyside area. Very convenient to buses, shops, etc. Buses are free to students and most of the hospitals in Oakland are right on the busline. But also more pricey. Oakland, another spot where students live, is very close to school but there are some seedy areas of Oakland. There are also many people who live in the suburbs (mostly people who have lived here a while) but the suburbs are pretty nice and affordable. But parking in Oakland is expensive. As far as taking classes- I HIGHLY recommend it. The first semester isn't that bad b/c for the first 8 weeks we have class only and after 8 weeks -clinical 2 days a week with class 2 days a week. The second semester with Applied Patho (very hard) and clinical 3 days a week you start to devote a lot more time to school and then most people have 2 more classes on top of that. I played the financial aid game with undergrad so I knew the ins and outs and it is not that bad. They have counselors in the fin aid office to help you through the hoops. The only problem is not enough money :-). If you have any other questions please feel free to email me or w/e. good luck

I am currently a student in my second semester and have been in clinical for 3 mos now. It is not that bad. They ask you questions about stuff- like drug metabolism, vent settings, effects here and there and if you don't know you don't know. Tell them you don't know and they'll have you look it up on your break or look it up for next time. I go to PItt and most of my preceptors also went to Pitt so they know what we know and they know where we're at in the program so they ask appropriate questions for our knowledge level. I have never been embarrased in front of a group of people (okay maybe once by an MD) but I've always been treated with respect unless I did something stupid. The number one thing is to keep your pt safe. Knowing some obscure fact of Hoffman elimination doesn't really matter if your patient is tanking. As far as doing things in front of people. Everybody waits on Anesthesia so yes- the circulator, scrub, MD, Anesthesiologist, CRNA and who ever else is in there are all looking at YOU waiting for you to intubate and get stuff going. Your preceptor/ CRNA should know that you don't know everything and it is an ongoing learning process. Don't sweat it and learn what they have to teach you. Good luck

I am biased but I say Pitt. I love the program here. I moved from out of state and enjoy Pitts. Only visited Philly so can't comment on that. I love that the UPMC system has hospitals all over Pitts and everything is semi close. A lot of the CRNA's that I have worked with graduated from PItt so they know what you know and where you're at in the program. I love our instructors and the way the information is presented. You won't have a whole lot fo time to mess around in the city if that helps you make your decision. I interviewed at four different school (not at Penn) and I really got the feeling that Pitt had their stuff together a lot more than other programs and we get top notch experience in a whole lot of settings (acute, specialties, OB, dental school, blocks, community hosp- etc. Good luck. both schools are great so any decision will be a good one.

Get there early. They have a couple of students there you can ask questions. There is a panel of about 10 CRNA's that ask you questions. Actually only about 3 or 4 asked questions and the rest just wrote down stuff. They ask a lot of why you want to come to Houston etc etc. Not a whole lot of clinical questions. Show some enthusiasm. I didn't get accepted and when I asked what I could've done better- he said show more enthusiasm. So in between breathing, not sweating through your shirt or blouse ( IDK if you're male or female), and not vomiting on the faculty- put on a happy, cheerleader face. Best of luck to you.

I am currently in PItts program. It is a lot of work but the instructors are great. I do believe we get some great experiences. There is a lot of student involvement as well from the upper classes. They participate in workshops and offer a lot words of encouragement and advice. We start clinicals after 2 mos of class which- I really appreciate. We get to apply a lot of the knowledge that we learn. Some of the concepts are a little hard to grasp at first (it is hard to not think about the way that we've always done it in the ICU). Overall- Coming to PItt is the one of the smartest, best decisions that I have ever made. If you have any more questions please feel free to email me directly and I'll answer any question you have- and I'll answer it honestly.

I interviewed there a couple of years ago. It wasn't the worst interview but it wasn't the best. They do ask some clinical questions. They ask you to present a patient that you have dealt with in your ICU and they go from there. they do ask some morality questions- like would you report a cheating classmate. I can't say they were unfriendly- they were just nonchalant. Overall the whole interview process wasn't anything to write home about. It was like most of the other places I interviewed at. Good luck.

We are starting to do care management plans everyday and I want to buy Jaffe 4th ed ( the new one) but they keep pushing it back. I don't want to waste money on a 3rd edition if a new one is coming out soon. I am tired of having to go to the library on an almost daily basis to look up my cases for the next day. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a substitute for the Jaffe book that would help describe the anesthetic care for patients? I am looking for something academic- so that knocks out Wiki. thanks

I am just finishing my semester and I still love it. It is tiring- getting up at 430 for clinical and being quizzed on stuff and having to manage patients in a totally different way. It does get frustrating at times when I want to study and the wife doesn't understand or wants me to spend more time with her or w/e. I also would like to spend more time with her and my 9 mos old son. It also sucks to go from making money to living off of loans. We knew the 2.5 yr sacrifice it was going to be and we accepted it. Even though sometimes it is frustrating and stressful- in the end it will be worth it. We all learn to balance our time and do what we need to do to make it through. To answer your question- NO the excitement is not over yet.

I started in Aug of this year. I was able to get direct to lender loans from Wells Fargo, Chase (which you have already mentioned) and Sallie Mae. I don't know if all three of any of the companies are still offering loans now b/c of the credit crunch but I got them this last July. I do know that the loans directly to you do rely on having good credit and some sort of income history so it is best to apply while you are still working. Thanks for the other links as well.

Loan it out. Accept the fact that you'll be poorer for the next 28 mos but it is worth it. There are loans out there to get. Plus you'll want to go on vacations and stuff when you get the time off. Try Wells Fargo and Sallie Mae for outside the cost of education loans.

I am looking for some recs on programs to download for my PDA. I have the Iphone and I know I can download the same programs for Palm. I already got Epocrates. What else do you all recommend? Also- does anyone know of any clipboards with a calculator and some anesthesia notes, formulas etc on the clipboard. Thanks

After much debating over a blackberry and iphone- I decided to go with the Iphone. Iphone now has a program- Isilo- it costs $10 and it is in the app store. After downloading the Isilo program you can then access Palm program which from what I understand greatly increases the amount of stuff to download.

Thanks for the replies. I am still undecided but will probably go with a Treo or Blackberry. Thanks

Oh yeah, they accept a lot of students- like over 100 and they get placed all over. I have no idea what the demand is for the KY/ Cincinnati area. As far as chem- I took an online junior college chemistry class and that satisfied their requirement. When I applied in 2007 they had a 2 or 3 week chem class you could take in the summer that they taught to serve as a refresher. It is expensive though.

I didn't attend TWU, but I did get accepted. I can answer a couple of your questions. The classroom part (phase 1) is in FT. Worth Tx. There you will do a semester of work and then have the option of going to your distant site for the second semester or staying there. I know the distant site in Denver you could tele courses. After a year, you then go to your clinical sites and start clinical. As far as ranking your clinical sites- if you live in say, CO and want to stay in CO then you put down Denver as your #1 choice. Some clinical sites outside of TX want you to do an interview at their site as well. Then you put in order the places you wish to go. You are not guaranteed to get your first site, but they may offer you a site someplace else ( I wanted Denver and got CA). The interview is a lot of clinical questions. You may have to travel to a different state to get all of your clinical experience as well (the cost is on you). I know that you don't get peds or open heart in Denver so you had to travel to TX or OH. good luck

I was talking to the director of the program and he said that he strongly recommends getting a cell phone ( I never used one much so didn't bother with it). However he says that a PDA is not required. I am thinking that I should get a phone with PDA capability as it can only help in clinical. Does anyone have any good recs for PDA/ Cell Phone. I have looked at the Treo, Palm, and Blackberry. They all seem to be about the same price and have the same capabilities. I have also thought about the Iphone but I saw that they aren't quite up to speed on the software yet. Any ideas/ suggestions would be great. I don't know if it makes a difference but my home computers are MAC as well. Thanks

I used to live in Denver and as far as I know TWU is the only school with clinicals in Denver. They do accept 4-6 students ( when I last applied) for each year to train in Denver between University Hosp and Denver Health. I don't think there are any other schools that have clinical sites in Denver. Hope this helps.

The three loans that I have found that are all above the COA are: 1) Sallie Mae Tuition Answer loan which lends up to 40,000 2) Wells Fargo- forget the name of the loan but they will lend what your school calculates as the COA ( but they bypass the school and the funds come directly to you). 3) Chase which is like Wells Fargo- bypass the school and funds come directly to you. Also, talk to the financial aid office. If you can show proof of stuff that isn't normally covered- child care, computers, ear pieces, palm pilots etc they can up your loan amt. If you are the bread winner in the family sometimes they take that into consideration as well. The private loans are based on credit history and you may need a cosigner. Also, they are based on salary and they want to see a check stub. Personally, I applied for all the loans I could get when I had a good salary so I don't have to stress over it in the middle of school Good luck