MICU RN

Count your blessings my program is 32 months and a semester of that is stuff for a MSN ( GAG). I have been in school for 12 months and still have 20 to go. But the trade off was not having to relocate, I have a family and that would have been very tough on them. So for me it was the right place, it also helps that I received my undergrad. degree from the same university. But if I was single and mobile, I think I would have looked at shorter programs ( 24 months). Although, I can't image how much harderr that would be since you have less time to digest the material.

Volume of material and the advance level of the material. Most of your anesthesia textbooks are written by MDs and are the same ones the anesthesia residents use. However, they have had four years of med school before getting to their resident training. As a SRNA you will have plenty of advance pharm and physiology, but will not have the extensive basic science background that the residents have had while in med school. Therefore, you probably find learning this volume of material very hard as most of us do.

Trust me if you look hard enough you will probably find a program that will accept you with a 3.0. Especially with all the new programs popping across the nation. Don't get me wrong, there are some extremely competitive programs out there that are very hard to get in, but it seems with the recent influx of new programs that getting in is not as hard as it may seem. However, that is just half the battle the other half is making through once you get accepted. I am starting to think the latter is tougher. I am about 1/3 through and it seems to be getting harder as I go. Good luck and I know a couple of people that have gotten in with low GPA's and seem to be doing all right.

Some of the classes I am taking are at a similar level to medical school classes in my humble opinion. I base this on the fact that I just took some phys. with the medical students at my university (cardio. and resp. phys). However, as hard as the academics are for us in crna school I do think that the two years the medical students spend in there didactic portion is harder because of the overall diversity and depth of their classes. While I feel that the anesthesia pharm. and phys. at my program is at the medical school level, some of the classes are not, especially the grad. nursing courses. However, the bottem line is that crna school is very hard and challenging so be prepared. And I certainly believe if you can do well in crna school that you can could do well in medical school. The biggest difference in grad. school compared to undergrad. is the volume of material. For example, the material for each test I took in that med school phys class was the same as whole semester of material for an undergrad science class.

Don't think it really matters, however I went the ADN/BSN route and wish I would have just got it done in one program. Those two programs were at the same university as the anesthesia school I attend. I felt burned out even before I got to anesthesia school from both school and bedside nursing. So, I would not take that route again but if you feel it is best for you go for it. As I said I don't think it will affect your application when the time comes to apply to crna school.

I am glad I am not the only one in the same boat. About 70k not counting the 17k undergrad. debt. I attend a state school and the tut. is reasonable, but the cost of living is what gets you. I also have two little ones at home. The younger you are the less of a concern the debt should becuse you will practice longer and therefore make more of a return on your investment.

Hard to get away from body fluids while in the ICU, most I have worked in did not have aids. However, I would use it as a motivator to keep me pushing towards my goal of becoming a crna. And once you are a srna and then a crna you are not responsible for cleaning crap. If you want to help that is fine , but not required. Especially if the pt. is still tubed when they have a BM. YOU stay at the head of the bed and protect the airway. The OR nurse may cop an attitude for not wanting to clean the poop, but that is his/her problem. And as for dealing with secretions, well that is what the suction device is for and believe me I would much rather deal with secretions than poop. BUt as others said you basically have to suck it up in the ICU and deal with the crap if you want to get your critical care experience. IF not go be a NP or something else. GOOD LUCK!

I think it is a very good idea that all crna's schools require at least one year of critical care as a RN; not just because you will need at least some background in being around sick people, but also you get a chance to see if critical care is for you. Believe it or not some people find it very stressful and once realizing that would never want the stress that comes with anesthesia managemnet. Most nurses who apply to anesthesia school have worked in critical care areas enough to know if they can or want to handle that kind of stress. However, I have met a couple of medical residents who were in anesthesia and switched and everyone of them cited the stress level was too high. Why is that? I think because most as medical students did not get enough exposure to really sick patients, much less have those types of patient's lives in their hands. So what I am getting at is I don't think it would be good to just jump right into anesthesia school with no critical care exposure. I aslo don't personally agree with the three year BSN/NP programs, however I have met one who graduated from one program and she seems to be doing well. However, I don't quite understand how they can teach a person how to be a bedside nurse and practice medicine in as little as 3 years. It takes at least 4 years of medical school and a three year residency to practice internal medicine or family medicine. And please don't take my comments as being directed at you in a negative way, I am just giving you my humble opion concerning these issues. I wish the best and hope you do try become a crna it can be a very rewarding career.

RLSU4CRNA: I am currently a freshman in the anesthesia program, so I will try to hit the high points of the way they interviewed last year. 1. They were only a few clinical questions, mainly some basic vent questions. 2. The interview seemed to focus on why you wanted to do this and did you understand the commitment that it requires? 3. Do you have a financial plan for you finances to help you get through school? You don't have to show them an actual plan, just verbalize an understanding of how you plan to make while you are are unable to work. (i.e., student loans, money saved, paid of car note ect.) 4. Try to remain calm, the interview does play a big part in getting in, so you don't want to screw it up. 5. Make sure you a current on some important issues crna's are facing today. Such as AA's, states allowing crna's to practice without MD supervision, ect. This covers many of the basic topics of the interview I experienced last year, so good luck and hopefully I will see as new freshman in the fall of 2004.

I agree with Kevin's post. In addition, I can remember last semster while taking an advanced general pharm class, our prof. mentioned that a couple of semesters ago many of the medical students were taking an herbal supp. to improve memory. The feedback from them was that it did not seem to work, I know this is rather antidotal, however, he also mentioned that there was no scientific trial studies to back up the claims. Kevin, brought up some good points, and although I am not a big proponent of gov. regulation, i do feel that these supp.s need to be much better regulated, so that they do not harm the general public.

Yoga: You go girl!!! Awesome.

If I had to pick one, I would choose an acute ICU area for the reasons just mentioned in the previous reply. I had a well rounded experience (3 years trauma one ER, MICU 18 months, 6 months SICU. While I learned more about grace under fire and thinking on my feet in the ER, you just don't get as many drips and vents in general in the ER, or get to recover sick surgical patients; however having said this, anesthesia is very different than bedside nursing so you will have to start as a novice again, no matter what type of bedside nurse you were. And as mentioned before all programs will accept ICU experience, but not all look favorably at the ER experience especially if it was not a level one trauma ER.

Last years class (their third) had about a 150 applicants and accepted 40. The application pool this year will probably be larger, although in the anesthesia world that is not bad odds. The strong points, good anesthesia faculity, access to great resources b/c it is housed in a health science center. For example, you have access to the same pharmacology and physiology professors as the medical students. As a matter of fact, you even get a chance to take medical physiology with the med students. And for now LSU does not have a medical anethesia residency program in New Orleans, so you don't have to compete with residents. In addition, the have clinical sites through out the state and even in Miss.; however, some of the lodging does come out of your pocket. Also, the program is one of the longer ones, 32 months and the first semester does consist of some nursing fluff, b/c you do receive a MSN. But the next 27 months are all science classes and clinicals. It is considered an intergrated program, you start your clinicals about 7 months into the program. And you get almost two years of clinicals at a full-time level. If you are state resident tut. is about 7500.00 a year not counting books and a lab top comp. that will be required for the next class. Overall, I think it is a good program and has the potential to be a very good program as it evolves, by the way the rest of the nursing school has an excellent reputation. And the football team is AWESOME!! GO TIGERS!!! PS If anyone has wondered where I have been? WEll lets just say the experience of anesthesia school is everthing you read on this board and more, so back to the books!

Twenty something a hour in most parts of the U.S.; Yes, you may have heard of nurses making 70-80k, but that is with plenty of overtime and maybe no benifits. Shadow some RNs before you do anything, also another thing most nursing schools will not tell you is that it takes at leats a master's degree to get to the good nursing and other medical jobs. For example, to become a NP,CRNA, pharmD, PT, or MD. These jobs have much more autonomy, respect and pay than your regular bedside RN positions. The thing I ask most people who are considering the move to being a nurse is are you ok without having plenty of autonomy and calling the shots? If you are not, you will probably never be happy being a nurse. Although, has I mentioned if you get a masters and become a NP or CRNA you have much more autonomy, not to mention you will not have do all the dirty work that comes with bedside nursing. The positives to being a bedside nurse, you play a vital role in the patient's care, job security, wide variety of nursing fields to specialize in, and it is a noble profession. I have the greatest respect for good nurses because it is such a hard and many times thankless job, I just could not accept the lack of autonomy. I just always found myself wanting to learn more and have greater say so in the medical plan, not just carry out the orders of the medical plan. Good luck with your investigation of this profession.

Also learn to maximize your time, what I do is get on the stationary bike and read my school stuff if I am really squeezed for time. although, I have not started the clinical part of the program, that is coming in March. Now lifting weights, well I have not figured away to combine both of those activities yet. Being flexiable, is also very important, school will have to come first, which means some weeks I will not be able to exercise as much as I would like. But I do think it is very important to try to exercise whenever possible.

Shadowing some nurses is a great idea, at least do that before you change careers. Also ask your self what do you expect from nursing as a job, if you want plenty of autonomy and prestige, I certainlly would do something else. If you have the personality of someone who wants to be the quarterback and call the shots, definitely don't go into nursing. In addition, ( and I probably will take heat for saying this) what they don't tell you in nursing school is that to get to the really good jobs in healthcare i.e., plenty of autonomy, respect, good compensation, usually requires at leat a master's degree ( MD,PT,Phram D, NP, CRNA, and physician assistent) these jobs offer much more autonomy and respect than bedside nursing, but you have to pay the price with more education. As the old saying goes there are no short cuts, you can't go to a community college for two years and expect to receive the same treatment as professionals who went to college for least six years. I can't tell you how many nurses I know who think they are smarter than all the doctors they work with. Not that undergrad nursing is not hard, it is as you will find out if you go to nursing school. But I would not go through all of that to be a bedside nurse again, I just find the negatives outweigh the positives. My biggest negatives are: lack of autonomy, compensation and the attitiude that the nurses should have to do aid work, clerical work and act as waiters besides performing nursing duties. Good luck with your decision, nursing is a good profession for the right person and is a noble career, but it is not for everyone.

That is exactly why I don't miss the ER and have no desire to go back. It is not worth twenty something dollars and hour, and guess what? It only is going to get worse as more people use the ER as a primary clinic b/c of lack of insurance. I can see why some er docs are willing to do it , mainly b/c of the shift work and they make anywhere from 150k-250k a year. But as a RN you can find shift work in many other areas and get paid the same 40k-60k and not have all the headaches. But hey someone has to do it, I am just glad it not me anymore. Don't get me wrong, we need good nurses and doc's attending to the ER, but it can sure be a thankless job at times.

Shortest crna programs are 24 months and I think the longest are 36 months. Most seem to be in between around 28 months. Mine is 32 months, not counting the semester it took me to take a grad. stats course as a prereq.; plus min. one year critical care plus 4 years BSN. So it will take almost eight years to achieve this goal. No one said it would be easy. I am curious though how long was the training way back when? I have heard that they did not need a bachelor's degree and that the anesthesia schools were 12-18 months long. This may explain why some of the older MDA's I spoke with were under the impression that our schooling today is like 18 months. They seemed to be shocked when I tell them it takes 2-3 years at a graduate level to complete these programs today. I think it is important we let others in the healthcare know how long it takes to become a crna. Mainly because in the medical field education level is important and is respected whether we like or not.

3 years ER (level-0ne trauma) 2 years ICU SICu/micu. Applied as soon as I finished my RN/BSN. Good grades, average MAT score. However, it seems there are many in my class with 2-3 years experience, but usually high grades and GRE scores. Although, there is no substitue for experience, it is not the end all be all that many think, for one reason, anesthesia is totally different than bedside nursing, and your academic ability is very important if you can't pass the test they don't care how long you were a bedside nurse. Bottem line, if you think you are ready go for it and just try to learn as much as you can at the bedside, but remember it is different and you are going to be a novice again when you get to the next level. Good luck!!

Start financial planning now. Don't wait, it can be done it will take planning and sacrifice. I just started anesthesia school this semester and I had to quit my job just like everyone else. However, I also have two small children and my wife has not went back to work yet. We had been planning for this for a couple of years, so we lived way under our means, small house with small house note, old cars ect. We had some money saved but not a lot, most will come from loans. There does not seem to be many grants or scholarships, although I just received a local one for 1000.oo. However, because of the high demand for crnas right now, you can probable find a anesthesia group or hospital that will be willing to help in return for so many years of service. So it can be done, but start now, don't wait, many of friends would love to go back to crna school, but just can't afford it, big house, new cars big notes. But I would rather be poor for the next 3 years than have to do bedside nursing for the rest of my working career. It is all about choices and how hard you are willing to work towards your goals. Good luck, it can be done!!!!!!!

Go for it , I am not a proponent of the school of thought , which states you have to go to med-surg and suck it up at least a yearto become a good nurse. I feel if you know what you would like to do that going to med surg or in your case staying there will not be in your best interest. While I have the greatest respect for floor nurses, and i have never worked it as a RN, only as a student nurse. I feel because of the high pt/nurse ratio that you really don't get the chance to develop critical thinking skills. yes, I am sure some will, but i feel that they just don't have the time for the most part and that you can get stuck there. I think floor nursing is very hard and not for everyone, I know it was not my cup of tea, and that good floor nurses are very skilled in there own speciality. I liked critical care areas, went straight to a busy SICU ( which was very difficult for a new grad) then to a big trauma one ER and then to a MICU, now back in school. I don't feel any time on a med surg floor would have helped prepare me for those critical care areas.

In regards to dip/vented comments: Personally, I never gave myself that much credit for the outcomes of my patients. Especially in the ICU setting where it usully takes a long time for really sick people to get better at least in the micu setting, I realize from my brief time in SICU that the window for more faster outcomes can occur, such as recovering a heart or a major organ from transplant. ANd from when I worked in the ER it seemed that you had more of a chance to perform life saving interventions. In addition, I have always realized that I as a RN am part of a team ( MDs, RNs, RTs ect.) and that I was not even the leader of the team, after all the MD dictates the medical plan, I may play a big part by staying on top of things and informing them when I feel they need to intervene. And I made it point to always give it my best, so no matter what the outcome is I don't have to take all the blame or credit. Because anyone who has ever worked at big teaching hospitals where the sickest of the sickest usually end up will tell you that many of the patients will not have good outcomes no matter what you do and not always anyones fault. And getting back to the initial thread, I went into nursing with the goal of being a crna one day. But it didn't stop me from trying to be the best ER nurse I could be or MICU nurse I could be, even though I had always thought of it as just something I had to do to get to my ultimate goal of becoming a CRNA. Now that I am finally in crna school I will do my best to be a good student and ultimately the best crna I can be. ANd as someone else mention on this thread, I am not expecting plenty of recognition or prestige, because we know that most of the public as no clue what services we really provide, they either think we are an anesthesiologist or jsut another RN in the OR who is allowed to give certian drugs, but can't function independently.

Make it sincere, concise, and realistic. Don't get to hung up on it, I think it will be more important to prepare for your interview. They will ask you something like "why do you want to become a crna"? Then you will get a chance to reexplain it. Just stay away from statements about money and prestige in your letter. It is okay to mention it, but it is not what they want you to be focused on. I think they want to see that you have an understanding what a crna does and the sacrifices it take to become one. Bottem line, don't sweat this part of the process out. They are other part which I think are more important, such as the interview and your grades, GRE and work experience.

BEfore you run off and start taking prereq.s do yourself a big favor and go shadow some RNs in units you think you would be interested in. If then you decide you want to do it, by all means go for it( I will be forty when I graduate with my MSN) I would also recommend you look into an accelerated BSN program for people with such extensive education as you have. You will probably fit in better with that peer group as opposed to a class with twenty something year old pupils in a traditional BSN program or at a community college that offers a ASN. Also because of your education background I would look at accelerated BSN/MSN were you can become a NP in usually 3 years. You may also want to shadow a NP. The reason I bring up the MSN/NP possibility is because if you are already use to providing counselling and have a masters degree, it may be hard to give up that kind of autonomy. Bediside nursing offers plenty of rewards, but it is also very hard physical work that does not allow as much autonomy as many other college educated professions. So make sure you know what you are really getting into, as I said shadowing some real nurses is about the best way I know of to see what it is really like. Good luck and check out alll of your options. One of the great things about nursing is that it offers many different options (bedside nursing, teaching, advanced practice nursing, ect.).

We can't blame our image on one TV show, no matter how popular it is. Nursing is still going through an evolution as profession, just look at what the image was 100 years ago. I feel it has come a long way but has a long way to go. Will it ever be considered as prestigious as medicine, law, or engineering? I doubt it. I mean as long as we are responsible for other stuff besides nursing such as, housekeeping duties, nurse's aid dutuies ( cleaning body watse) waiting on the patients I don't think it will ever be considered on par with those other types of professions. No matter how important we think our job is and I do feel it is important.