RRTNeuroRN

Give me a break...that was not meant to be humor, but I do think she has a sense of humor because I thought her statement was pretty funny. Seriously, why all the hate??? Are you guys unhappy with your jobs because for the life of me I can't see why you would choose to say all we do is sit around all day and do nothing and spend this long on a thread unless you have issues with your own job. My mother in law and sister in law are both NP's and are completely happy with their choice....and they are happy with mine. Remember...we are ALL nurses.

Love it.....I had been trying to come up with a good reply for the CRNA haters but nothing was coming to me that was any good. Glad I waited on you to reply!!!!

Love, love, love the reply......Seriously

The reason no anesthesia is used is because the patient is DEAD. And yes, antesthesia CAN damage organs. Most of these patients are already treading a fine line with blood pressure because the brain dead patient is usually extremely unstable. Most of them are maxed out on levophed or other pressors and the addition of any anesthetic could decrease their pressure even further and that could damage their organs. Nursing students probably don't know that much about donation and anesthesia anyway so I am not surpirised that students wouldn't know the procedure for organ procurement. Organ donation is the most wonderful gift a family in pain could ever give to someone else. These family members must understand prior to agreement that their family member is dead and that even though the heart is beating and they are warm, they are still dead. The organ donation center in Georgia is Lifelink and they are wonderful. They speak with the family and make sure that they are fully aware of everything that has and will take place. Organ donation is a very personal decision and if you are not comfortable with yours then by all means find out whatever you need to in order to make a more informed decision. I am an organ donor and I fully understand the procedure for brain death criteria and procurement and I am comfortable with it. To each their own.

We do these at our hospital all the time, especially in our PICU. Our nurses can insert all feeding tubes..including post-gastric. We just get a KUB after and a doc reads it.

I got in to all the schools I interviewed at and did not have my CCRN at the time. I'm not saying you don't need it...I'm just saying it can be done.

If you PM me your e-mail address I will tell you how ti get them.

I got the DVD's from a friend who had bought them. She has a website www.greatnurses.com. You can order them there.

I was super easy.....I studied for three days and all I did was watch the Laura Gasparis videos. There are six and I watched two on Monday, two on Tuesday, and two on Wednesday...then I took the test on Thursday and did very well. She teaches you all you need to know.

I gave my people the form and requested that a letter be attached with it. I had a surgeon, one of my teachers, a CRNA, and my dept manager write letters for me. Most schools I applied to wanted a CRNA to write a letter even though they don't know you, because they expect you to have shadowed this person so they should know something about you.

Anesthesia.....boring? I doubt it. The people who think that all CRNA's do all day is sit on a stool and write down vitals don't have a good understanding of the profession. What could be more exciting than inducing a pain and awareness free state in a perfectly normal human being while someone slices them open and proceeds to move organs around inside their body???? Sounds great to me!!!

I haven't started yet, but I will on August 25th. The interview was easy and everyone was very nice. It is still a fairly new program (I will start the fourth class), but the program director is very nice and he is working to change some of the issues that other students have brought to his attention.

I will be attending Mercer in August this year. We have a new program director and he seems like he is really going to do a great job. The program is still new (I will start the fourth class), but it has gotten better every year. The students in the current classes seem to like it so far. Every program has its problems....I have high hopes for this one.

We have done a few DCD's at my hospital. It is a much different feeling sending one of these pt's off to OR as opposed to one that has been pronounced....but it is still wonderful knowing this person could save many lives!!

Maybe I should have clarified myself....I don't practice this anymore....my point in posting was just to agree that it is not as safe as everyone seems to think for non-anesthesia providers to administer the drug- and don't worry, I have already re-thought my position and am no longer a staff RN....I am on a much needed 10 week break before I start CRNA school in August. I will be sure to pass this on to our administration though, because we had the same question when this doc wanted us to bolus propofol for EVD insertion on non-intubated pt's and we were told it was OK. Thanks for the info.