piper_for_hire

I don't post on this forum anymore due to the censorship policy. Feel free to PM me. -S

I stand by my statement: Anesthesia school should not be lowering their standards - only raising them. -S

I hope not - haven't heard of anyone lowering their standards - only raising them in the direction of ICU only (although it seems to me that many inner city ERs fit the ticket perfectly and those folks have that great rapid-action experience too but that is a whole other topic) -S

It's easy - just look around. Tons of posts about "my GPA is too low", "do I really need ICU experience" and (personal fav) "how can I skip being an RN and go right to anesthesia school". -S

I'm trying to get into this new SRNA forum but this question really belongs into the pre-crna section. It would be great to think of allnurses as someplace to discuss something other than which school to choose, how to get in and how to get around the minimum academic requirements. -S

LOL! That's pretty funny! -S

I'm only a student right now so what do I really know - but I don't think having a DNP will make me a better provider simply because the providers we have today seem to know what they are doing. The dean at my school (and reportedly others in the area) think the DNP is a bad idea and are publicly saying that they won't do it. I think when all the dust settles - meaning the AANA, AACN and the folks that run the schools are on the same page - we will see the DNP becoming the requirement. Who knows how long all that will take. The dates being thrown around are meaningless if people can't get together and agree on this stuff. 2015? 2025? Meaningless until people cooperate. However, I feel that this is just degree creep. While I think it would be nifty to have a clinical doctorate, I will always know that it was completely unnecessary. -S

Totally agree with it being anti-climactic. My first few tubes and LMAs were no big deal, sadly. Everyone seemed much more excited than I was. Don't get me wrong, I was happy that they went in but it seemed like small potatoes compared to all of the other stuff going on. -S

I did get into both an MSN and MS programs. I chose the MSN program but it had nothing to do with the fact that it was an MSN program - just a better school. However, if I had to make that decision all over again I wouldn't even consider the MS program. This is mainly due to all of the DNP rumblings going around. While I expect to be grandfathered in if all of this DNP nonsense goes down, it will probably make sense for me to do some kind of MSN->DNP bridge program because grandfathering only really works if you stay in the same state and I like to move around. I'd rather get the MSN stuff out of the way instead of having to take it post-grad in order to get into a DNP program. Something to consider. -S

You're both right and wrong. Neither dates really matter as this DNP business is far from settled. I would be very cautious of programs that are inventing their own version of an anesthesia DNP. Seems to me that it makes sense to wait until all of this stuff is agreed upon by all of the parties before you jump into a DNP program. -S

I haven't heard of NP programs having problems like this. I seriously doubt that A&P grades had any impact on getting into grad school. -S

Man - I must have lucked out. Three of the five nursing students in my rotation were guys. I figured since I was at a small community hospital we wouldn't see anything. Just the opposite! There were no refusals and I saw a ton of v and c deliveries. Very cool experience overall. The funny thing was that some of the nurses said they would never let a guy work there. I suppose some people believe sexism is the way to go. I'm in grad school now and I have another OB rotation coming up next fall. Let's hope I have the same good luck with patients. -S

I doubt there are any statistics on this but being a minority (in this case a man) can probably help because the people in higher education value diversity. It seems to me that people feel that there should be more men in nursing so that thought may be in the back of the mind of the person interviewing you. My grad class is about 1/3 men which is pretty high considering the low percentage of men in nursing. -S

If you are going to be a doomsayer - you need to do a lot better than simply misunderstanding the factors of supply and demand related to anesthesia today. Yes - if all things remain fixed in a given market the supply can eventually catch up to demand. Of course, this sort of thing only happens in textbooks. There are so many factors that suggest that the demand will sharply outgrow the supply over the next 20-30 years. For example - there are hardly any AAs in existence as compared to the number of CRNAs. As a nation we can only churn out a few thousand CRNAs every year. Is surgical demand on the rise or on the decline? Is our population getting older, living longer and living sicker? Are CRNA and AA salaries tiny as compared to MDA salaries? What is the MDA/CRNA billing ratio? What is the average age of a CRNA? Blah blah blah. On the flip side - lets day that the extremely unlikely event occurs that the market gets saturated. Salaries may decline, but only slightly. History teaches us this across all professions. Then what happens? Less people go into it an viola! you have a huge supply crunch. Things have never looked brighter. -S

I don't remember - moved out of DE a couple of years ago. Check the septa web site for that info. -S