geecue

LOL....dude chill out. I was just expressing my opinion. Everyone knows the rough rides coming in school. But don't take it out on me just because you get your *** kicked in clinicals.

POINT taken. One thing I have to add though, $60,000 gain a year over a ten year span is a considerable difference, even with the two years out with no income and the debt accumulated from school. I did the quick math. Bottom line is for ME, I'll be so much happier as a CRNA than a bedside RN. :)

Ok Qwigg.....whatever you say

Lets not kid ourselves....we all know why we're in this: financial gain, better lifestyle. Yeah personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment goes with it...but anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. My CRNA buddies who are practicing now are living it up. Youre in an awesome field...you'll get through it fine. The pot of gold is waiting for you at the end of the rainbow...

that's what I was told....they werent taking anymore after this year. I already mentioned that the program was taken over by the med school. I got in Kaiser anyways so I don't really care... tuition's sky high at USC.

USC is shutting their program down this year. The nursing school closed a couple years ago, and the CRNA portion was then handled by the medical school; hence there was too much conflict and competition with the anesthesia residents... medical schools always take higher precedence within Universities. The same thing with Loma Linda and UCLA....both had CRNA programs that ended up shutting down for the same reasons. That leaves only Kaiser and Samuel Merritt for the whole state of Cali As far as the rankings go... I look at them and laugh. My school was ranked top ten this year and was top five last year. This brought me memories of what my buddy asked me a few years ago: What do you call the med student who was ranked last in his class: an MD. You pass the boards for CRNA school...you got the RIGHT STUFF. Who cares which school you attended....our patients certainly wont. nuff said

that's so obnoxious.... go wolverines!

-----kpsa-----

There are quite a few Philippinos that were 'physicians' in their homeland and are now practicing RN's at my hospital. I'm not going to speak for all the foreign to US RN's, but I asked them personally why in the world would they become an RN instead of an MD. Simply put: 'lack of ambition' was what they told me. I see your point CalGal about the deception but from the few I talked too...maybe they aren't cut out to practice here. The UCMLE exam is extremely difficult (my father took it and is practicing Dermatology in the East Coast). What I'm seeing more now in different hospitals is a a large influx of RN's from other countries (Phillipines, India etc) that are getting hired on (ICU even!) without any prior experience. With the huge nursing shortage we are experiencing....it makes me wonder where we're heading when theyre paying these nurses 18 bucks an hour, thus forcing the qualified and experienced RN's to look elsewhere for work because they can't get inhouse or overtime pay. Is the dollar more important to management these days instead of quality of care?

who wants to work in Utah anyways?? j/k my buddy in hawaii is working on his own after just one year experience....but that was 3 years ago. Thanks for the PMs for those of you practicing already....I think I got the 'gist' now.

Any of you CRNA's out there know what the average malpractice insurance is annually these days? I know the CRNA's working staff at the hospitals here in California are covered at work. I heard that the insurance companies are asking for a minimum of 3-4 years of experience in a hospital before they will cover you as an independent contractor (ie outpatient clinics). If any of you are doing independent work...how many years experience did you have before you jumped on your own? Thanks! :)

Sheesh...she should have headed for the CPA route...not CRNA. There's alot of validity to what she said but bottom line is: NOTHING beats being debt free! You're going to do well wherever you go...making more than anything you could do as an RN. If you have to take the loans....bust it out and pay them off when you can...as fast as you can. Do you currently own a house? The lenders look at 'debt to income' ratio....so be careful about going crazy with the student loans. Good thing is...most interest rates for the loans are low. I've had a couple buddies (CRNA's) now that offered to 'pay my tuition' and costs of living for a small interest charge. Of course they are my good friends and they look at me as an 'investment' too lol....but it's just another way I'm looking at financing my way through school. You'll be fine whatever route you take....no doubt. Peace.

I'm going to Hawaii for a week before school starts at the end of August, and then I'll be doing a 3 day big game fishing trip off San Diego. I'm packing my last weeks of freedom in before the first day of class. Take advantage of whatever free time you have before school starts. Play hard--work hard!

Yeah yeah....mad skillz Gaspassah has the skills. I'm just trying to follow suit. Here's how it was for my interview: I dropped a BUCKET load of money on my new suit for the interview process. I figured if I screwed the interview up...at least I went down looking gooooood. Best of luck!

give me a break...