ssrhythm

Anyone else on here having problems reaching the NBCRNA or with their recertification application? I have 78.5 class A CEs and 14 ACLS/PALS credits, a rural trauma development course that was 8 hours, and several random 1 hour CEs. The AANA transfers credits to the NBCRNA that I earn from Audio Digest...the 78.5 hours. The NBCRNA has these as 75.5 hours and a notice that says they are aware of the problem with discrepancies between actual hours earned and what is transferring over and they are working with the AANA to get it fixed. Well, when I try to call the NBCRNA, any mailbox for any person I attempt to leave a message with it "full and no longer able to accept messages...goodbye." I have emailed them three times regarding what I need to do to get my CE credits correct on my application so that I can pay them to allow me to continue to do what I have earned the right to do. No one at the AANA will answer their phones and I can only leave messages that are not being returned. When trying to upload CE documents to their CE portal...I get an "oops 404 site not found" error message. I have a damn plenty to say about each of these organizations...another time. For now, I simply need them to recognize the CEs I've earned and take my damn money. Anyone here have any advice for me regarding getting them to get my CEs logged in and credited? Contacting a human? Working remotely due to covid in no excuse for not checking messages and returning calls.

Back when I was on here a bunch, I remember there being a job posting/heads up sub-category. I don't see that anymore, so I'll post this here. I'm looking for the right fit to be my partner. Hospital employee. Incredibly light schedule with incredibly light callback. This is a solo position, so you must have some years of non-supervised, completely autonomous experience, and possess the confidence that you can handle the occasional disaster that rolls into the ED for stabilization and maintenance until the chopper arrives. It is a solo position, and if you can handle it, you know it. Must be confident but kind and chilled...the caseload is such that we don't get in a hurry...we don't need to. The OR crew is a tight-nit team and we respect each other and enjoy our time together...in short, we have fun doing the work we love. Job is 26 weeks/year, and we want someone to become part of and commit to this community. That said, I am extremely flexible and can work any base schedule (week/on week/off...three weeks on/three weeks off...etc. I like doing locums to augment the pay here (which is excellent), so I will appreciate someone who is willing to do longer stints from time to time...especially in the Summer months. In return, you will have the same long stints off yourself. This is a gem of a job in an awesome, rural town, and you will absolutely have the flexibility in scheduling to take long vacations to do the things you've always wanted but could not get the continuous time off to do. In addition to the weeks off, your weeks on will afford you more time at home with your family than any other job I've seen in my career. If you have the experience and are up to the challenges of solo practice and the above sounds good to you, please PM me here (if that is possible) or respond with a contact number or email addy. Thanks.

Traffic on here looks incredibly low and slow, but I remember some great members offering great advice when I used to frequent this site. I am now at a very rural hospital working solo, and I see a tremendous community need for a pain clinic here. I mentioned the possibility to my CEO, and he is excited and interested in exploring the possibilities. This town is tiny and isolated, thus it will never attract an established pain doc, so this will be an endeavor that will be built here from the ground up. My employer is willing to get me coverage and pay for the necessary training for me to operate this clinic. That said, I know next to nothing about the logistics of starting such a clinic and getting it up and running. I'm hoping to hear from as many CRNAs as possible that operate in this capacity to find out exactly what their contracts look like, what their start up looked like (if opening a new clinic/service from scratch), any pitfalls they ran into and wish they had known to avoid etc. If you have any experience in this or know someone who does and wouldn't mind putting me in contact with them, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

And let me add this...where I work, we have the very best surgeons I've ever worked with. While there are three that can be a pain in the orifice every once and a while, they all have tremendous respect for the anesthesia providers, RNs, Scrubs...everyone in the department. Not only do we all get along well at work, many of the surgeons are very good friends with the anesthesia team members and many of the other OR staff, and getting together outside of work for beers, wine parties, dinners, community events etc. is not uncommon at all. Do not think that every OR and every hospital is the same...if ******* surgeons and a stressful work environment are weighing you down, go small, rural, and autonomous. Life is too short to have anyone talking down to you as their necessary subordinate on a daily basis.

For those of you who have this same sentiment...how many CRNA jobs have you had? How many different regions of the country have you worked in? I ask this, because I see and know so many people who finished school and took the first open job at the major hospital we trained at...often accepting the job before graduating. Some did so because they lived in the area already and did not want to move. Some did so because they were worried about actually getting a job and having a paycheck asap after graduation. The mothership hospital we trained at is a huge ACT practice facility where tensions are always high and pay is ridiculously low. I know money is not everything, but having a CEO offer you 200K with great benefits give you a great, appreciated feeling. I did not leave my training area simply for the money, but I could not see myself working for 160K with no autonomy in a virtual continuation of school where I had no autonomy. I left my home and the area where my mom and dad live and moved to a rural town ten hours away because they were offering me a pile more money and complete autonomy. When I interviewed, it was obvious that the people working at the hospital were very happy and considered their co-workers family. The environment in the surgical department was laid back, friendly, and saturated with mutual appreciation and respect for EVERYONE. The cases are bread and butter, so I am rarely in a case for more than 2.5 hours, but it does not matter because during a 3 hour case, the time flies, as everyone in the room is interacting in a serious but absolutely relaxed and often fun manner. I pre-op all my patients, and despite only spending 5 minutes or less preoperatively with them, I feel that during that time, the act of explaining the anesthetic, answering their questions, and doing everything I can to make them comfortable and relaxed at a time where they are likely the most anxious and stressed that they have ever been...I find that in that short time, I do more for the patient than I ever did in a 12 hour shift as an RN even if I was only taking care of one patient that shift. I have yet, in 4 years of working at this facility, to get up and wish that I did not have to go to work. I can assure you that if I were working at any of the hospitals that I worked in for the ten years before CRNA school or all but one of the dozens of clinical sites that I trained in, I would be having to drag my are into work every morning and would be sitting on the stool longing for the moment that I could go home. My point is simply this...there ARE fantastic jobs out there that are fantastic not simply because of the pay or location or reputation or benefits....but they are great because of the culture within the facility. If you are thinking you made a mistake and are thinking of ditching the profession...open your mind to seeking out your CRNA job utopia. Don't limit yourself to any geographic location, and don't exclude anywhere because of the location. Go interview somewhere that offers autonomy and good compensation and interview them while you are there...find a place where employees are happy and tight with each other and make a move. Give that a shot instead of bailing on something you have worked so hard for and instead of sticking with a job that you are not enjoying. As someone who has worked in multiple hospitals in multiple states...trust me when I say that if you are not happy in your job, there is a far greater chance that you are not happy because of where you are working vs what you are doing. Open your mind and do not give up without trying to find the right fit for you.

I was a 36 year old RRT when my wife and I committed to me becoming a CRNA. We had no children, and while we kinda wanted children, we decided to go for it and reassess when I was done. The move to where I was going to attend nursing school and then CRNA school put us in a situation where we were paying rent at two houses while having a mortgage on a third that was on the market. Financially, we could not have been in much worse shape for such an expensive and risky an endeavor; while my RRT GPA was 3.97, my overall was 2.7...I knew going in that I'd have to make all As in nursing school and even then, it would be no guarantee. We had our first child with 4 months left in my CRNA program, and we now have two beautiful boys, I love my job, and we are loving life. The moral to this story is that you are in no way too old to do it. You have the grades to do it. If you truly have the desire to do it, it will not be easy, but you will do it. If you want it to happen, there are plenty of loans out there to help you get through it. If you truly want to do it, commit to it and give it everything you've got, and you can do it. Do not enter into the journey uncommitted, and your dream, although it will seem like a nightmare at times, will not turn into a nightmare!

I graduated from there, but I'm not really sure about specific science requirements. If you meet their requirements...ie. you have a BSN or are and RN with a BS degree, I believe you will have your necessary prereq courses. Most nurses should have taken chems up through biochem or organic, micro, A&P 1&2, statistics etc., so if you meet the degree requirement for application then you should be good to go.

Do not plan on working or having any income from you working while attending school. You might get some people on here that will tell you that they were able to pull it off, but thinking that you can work any and thinking that you can count on any money from your work is a bad way to approach what you are about to do. There are many threads addressing this and the "typical day" as an SRNA on here, and my advice is to read them all, look at the worst case scenario posts, and plan on that. There is ample money available via student loans that will pay your tuition and cost of living expenses based on what your family income is and what your expenses are, and while getting in debt 200K might sound like a nightmare, getting into school and failing out or getting kicked out half way through is much worse. When you are planning your budget and looking at how you are going to pay bills and make ends meet, do so planning on no income from you; if you get in and get through a bit of school and clinicals and find that you can work a couple of days a month here and there, then it will be a bonus. Apply for as much loan money as they will give you, as you are not obligated to take it all, and it will be there if you need it. The program is difficult enough to navigate, survive and thrive in without having the stress of worrying about finances on top of it. Just remember, it is worth doing whatever you have to do to get it done. Good luck!

Good to hear that morificeko. Everything I've seen and heard do not match what you are experiencing in your job. I moved to Indiana after graduating for exactly the opposite reason you want to move south! Maybe after living in the Midwest from birth to adulthood, the southern heat won't wear on you like it does those of us born and raised there. I'm from SC, but unless you live on the NC coast where you can count on the seabreeze or in the mountains where it is ~10 degrees cooler than in the flats, everywhere south of Virginia is swealtering hot and brutal from about mid May-September. I'll take single digits for a couple of months over five months of not being able to walk outside at 3am without being soaking wet before getting to your car. I love the south, but getting carried away by mosquitoes while duck hunting in December suuuuucccckkkssss! I digress...My parents are 75yo and we have given them their first grandchildren... two boys 2y/o and 3months old. I own a great house in Columbia, SC and I would love nothing more than to move back there so my parents and my children (not to mention me) can have as much time together as possible, as they are not getting any younger. Right now, I simply can not afford to move anywhere close to them. I'm making more in my second year out of school than the chief CRNA at one of the better paying facilities that we did rotations at...and he is over 70 and about to retire. He's the only CRNA that I discussed personal salary with, and maybe he was telling me a story, as he knew that I wanted to work there if a position ever opened up. That is SC...NC seems to be significantly lower than SC. Also, do not expect to be doing any PNBs or working autonomously. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I've not seen them. Regardless, you will be signing on for significantly less money compared to what is being offered in the midwest. Money isn't everything, though. I'm taking 5 of my 7 weeks of vacation and working locums for the next two years so that we can be in a position to take that paycut if necessary to move back and be closer to our parents, and I'd do it now...for them...if I could. It's going to be very tough going from autonomy to micormanaged...boo.

GO COCKS! I used to live in Asheville, and being a WW Kayaker married to a beach-gal, I would love to one day return to Asheville or the OBx. As an RT at Mission back in 03-05, I went through the OR to get my required 10 facility intubations during my orientation there; I remember thinking that compared to other ORs I'd been in, that place was full of very tense and unhappy CRNAs. Now that I'm a CRNA, just reading the job postings from Asheville and the surrounding areas, it is obvious that unless you really, really loooovvvvve Asheville or own a home there that you can not get out of, that is not a CRNA friendly place to go. Read between the lines and you'll plainly see..."for a whopping 120...maybe 150K if you are very experienced and work a pile of OT, you can come here, work multiple shifts at multiple facilities of our choosing, all while being micromanaged and treated like a subbordinate by we Godly Anesthesiologists. But hey, you will get 4 weeks of vacation and a week of CME leave...no, no CME money!...to recharge your batteries and rest your aching bunghole! Act fast, because there are obviously too many desperate CRNAs being churned out and Asheville is cool, so these opportunities won't last long. Sincerely, the great and mighty monopolists of Asheville Anesthesia Associates." It really sucks, because it is a wonderful place to live. As far as Raliegh...good grief! I remember looking at jobs around there in the months prior to graduating, and after about two weeks, I quickly skipped past any job posting that stated "raliegh" or "research triangle," as there was never anything posted that was any better than any other job posting in any other state.

10 mg versed and 250mcg fentanyl followed one minute later by 200mg propofol followed 30 seconds later by 50mg rocuronium followed 30 seconds later by 100meq KCL followed 10 minutes later by the morgue staff. Three minutes and the murderer was comfy, unconscious, still, then dead...every time. The price would be minimal. Is this really so difficult?

Maybe this explains why there is currently a "shortage" of glyco that our pharmacy can only get through one "black-market" type of distributor for...get this...$600.00 for a box of 20 1cc vials! There has to be some kind of law being trampled on here. Anyhoo, this news goes a long way toward explaining the current shortage.

The folks who have profited from succs and glyco and neostigmine for all these years are putting their hard-earned money to good use up on the hill. Anyone who thinks otherwise has their head buried in the sand. It is all about the money!

I had become, over the last year, a little more open to putting an LMA in slightly obese patients and pts with well controlled DM, but one of our general surgeons told me about a CRNA here years back that had an obese diabetic aspirate and later die from complications related to the pneumonia that followed. He said he witnessed the lawyer ask a series of questions about the patient that were taken word for word from the LMA package insert. The CRNA got burned. Now, I don't care if it is a three minute cysto case, if the patient is obese or diabetic, they are getting intubated. If it looks to be a difficult airway, I'd rather deal with that up front and in control rather than when the procedure is going on. There are far too many "safe" options available to be going up against what you will face if an LMA anesthetic goes bad on a patient who fits the criteria warned against on that package insert.

Good Goob! Seriously?! There has to be a better and more direct way of preventing the over-production of CRNAs. I know My school, USC SOM adjusts their class sizes according to demand. Maybe we should figure out a way to keep schools from trying to maximize their profits with total disregard to the market. Allowing the sole credentialing body to apply new credentialing standards that in no way, shape, or form enhance the quality of care that is given by CRNAs with the hopes that the new standards somehow keep CRNA overproduction down is a back-asswards way of hoping a problem gets solved. The new standard in no way reduces the number of new grads flooding the market that will drive salaries down; it will only serve to discourage damn good CRNAs with far more experience and ability than those "ready and able" to pass the test from continuing their careers. This new standard is nothing more than a way to drum up more revenue under the false pretense of higher standards. It is total horsehocky. As far as the AANA not caring about ACT practice CRNAs...what do you expect them to do? I left SC, because practicing in SC meant calling a MDA to come in and slam induction agents, leave you to clean up the mess, and calling them to come in and watch you extubate/emerge the patient. ***** If you really want to change that BS, leave. Refuse to be a part of that whole fraudulent bunch of BS. It is the states nursing policy that dictates how CRNAs can practice, and if we stop going along with and supporting the ACT model by our participation in it, things will change. There isn't a hospital administrator in America who wouldn't want to go with an all CRNA anesthesia model if was an option. Eventually, every state will be an opt-out state, because the feds will eventually see the ACT model for the inefficient sham and waste that it is. Until then, quit looking for the AANA or someone else to fix the problem...quit supporting the ACT practices with your participation in them.

First, I am a CRNA in autonomous practice. I get your argument, and I agree with your last statement wholeheartedly. I'm referring to the numerous NPs that I've worked with that graduated high school, graduated nursing school, immediately enrolled in grad school, earned their MS degree, became certified as a NP, secured a job, and then fumbled around for years writing orders that made no sense wile not being able to see the forest for the trees. I had two RN classmates who were amazing producers in the classroom and who hid and ducked every patient care opportunity possible during clinicals take this exact route. One actually made the comment at the beginning of a clinical day "that's what I want to do...I want to be the one telling others what to do and not be the one being told what to do." Ok, we all understand that, but maybe you need to actually learn what it is that you need to do before assuming that role. Like I said, there are a lot of NPs out there who know what is going on and have the knowledge and understanding to truly manage critically ill patients. There are also a lot of them that writing orders based on what they think they know, yet could not handle a crisis situation if the world depended on it...the ICU nurses are covering their asses every day. Again, to your last comment, it is spot-on assuming that the admissions boards are doing their jobs well and not letting in the ICU nurses that can't think for themselves and are completely dependent on the protocol sheets in front of them and not letting in the NPs who have never had any true patient care experience and who are relying on the nurses to handle what they do not understand.

I guess it all depends on the individuals involved. We've all known NPs who were so jam-up-and-jelly-tight with their skills and knowledge that you'd rather have them handling your care than any MD in the town. We've all known NPs who you know you will have to help make decisions about your patient in a manner that allows them to think that they are coming up with the pt care decisions on their own, because they are too proud to take advice from a lowly nurse and too ignorant and ill-prepared to figure things out on their own. Of course, the same can be said about nurses. I doubt, however, that the critical care RNs with two years experience are going to get the type of recommendation letters that they need if they aren't the cream of the crop in their respective units. I don't know where NPs would get recommendation letters that speak to their ability to titrate drips and do hand's on management of critically ill patients in a feces-hitting-the-wind-machine situation. Having the knowledge and book smarts is important, but it is not the same thing as having the knowledge and book smarts AND applying those qualities at the bedside while multitasking in a crisis situation. I'm sure that there are many CCNPs that have and use those bedside skills, but the majority I've worked with either did not possess that ability and/or never applied that ability, so how do you know? I've never met a CVICU or STICU nurse with 2 years experience in their unit that did not have the skills and knowledge necessary to do this work if they wanted to. Again, it really comes down to the individuals being compared, but if I had to play the odds, I'd take an RN with 2 years CC experience over an ACNP or FNP with two years experience. It really does not matter, though, because if they get into and through CRNA school, they will be ready and able to handle the job.

Well. I just read that on the AANA site and came over here to say that I was obiviously mistaken. Too bad. If what they are claiming is and has been true this entire time, why the defensive e-mail from the NBCRNA and COA in the first place? What are the details behind the "frayed relationship" that they are mending? We can speculate till the cows come home, but does anybody know the facts behind all this friction and weirdness between them?

Yup, that email was from the NBCRNA and COA not the AANA. I have not seen where the AANA has issued a statement or a response to this e-mail yet. From what I can gather...and I may be way off base here...the AANA felt the heat from its membership to do something in response to the recert changes that the NBCRNA and COA slammed down our throats. The whole "period of discussion" where the vast majority of CRNAs wrote in against having to retake the exam was a sham at best from what I can tell. They had their sweet idea of implementing this new standard, and no amount of well written, logical letters was going to change their minds. Simply put, having to retake the exam does nothing...NOTHING...to strengthen the skills and improve the care that is currently being given by CRNAs throughout this country. All it does is drum up a ton of money for the NBCRNA and the COA and for all the test administration and prep-course entities associated with this certification process. Some argue that it is a way to bring our standards in line or parallel to those of the MDAs, but that is a weak reason for implementing their new set of standards. I work autonomously alongside three anesthesiologists. One is great and takes the time to tweak his anesthetic delivery to meet his goal of providing better service as time advances. One is great, but he is going to do what he's done since the 80's regardless of any evidence that better practices exist. One is terrible and basically gets patients through with total disregard to anything other than keeping them alive till he hands them off to the PACU nurses. Their model of recertification has no effect on their clinical delivery of anesthesia, and I'm sure that the same will hold true for CRNAs. The only valid reasons that exists to add burden and cost to maintaining certification is if that added burden and cost will produce significant improvement of clinical skills and knowledge across the board that significantly enhances the delivery of the care that we provide...or if the added burden and cost will help advance our status as providers within the healthcare system as a whole. The recent changes do neither of these, and the AANA membership is calling BS. The NBCRNA and the COA should make and enforce policy according to the wishes and educated opinion of its constituency, and if they fail to do so and implement self-benefiting policy that ignores the opinion of the majority of the CRNAs that support it's existence, they should be held accountable. Look no further than Washington to see what happens when governing bodies are allowed to do what they choose without the fear of repercussions. Competition and choice is always a good thing. I just hope that whatever evolves from this is founded on accountability, simplicity, and common sense.

I'll sum up a typical day for me and tell you why I love what I do, but check out "a typical day in the life of an SRNA" in the SRNA forum if it is still there. There is a long way to go, and it is a demanding road before you become a CRNA, but it is well worth it. I usually wake up at 5:45 and leave for work at 6:15 to be here at 6:30. I do cases until we are done, then I go home. There is a whole lot in between arriving and leaving that you will see when you shadow. I love my job, because people who have never met me are trusting that I will get them through a frightening time alive and well. Anesthesia is an art, and beyond the baseline of getting a patient through the surgery alive and well, I pride myself on getting my patients feeling great and relaxed before induction and waking them up comfortable and with smiles on their faces in an efficient manner that keeps the OR rolling and the surgeons happy. While anesthesia can be cookie cutter in many cases, it certainly does not have to be, and I think it should not be. The days where I come in and all my bread and butter cases flow effortlessly to days end are great, but there are days that your repeat c-section hemorrhages unexpectedly and you work like mad inside but calmly outside to replace 3/4 of their blood volume safely and effectively while keeping them stable all the while reassuring them and never letting on that anything is amiss as the pt is awake with spinal anesthesia. The particular case I'm referring to outlasted the spinal and we had to eventually go to sleep. She was awake, extubated, pain free, and stable as a rock an hour later when we left the OR despite having to have an emergency hysterectomy to keep her from bleeding to death. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you are part of something like that and you leave seeing mom and baby together happy and well. Anesthesia is precisely, scientifically-magical, and I feel blessed that I get to do what I do every day and get paid well to boot. Good luck with whatever path you choose.

I see this all the time on here, and I understand the question and line of thinking about "will they accept X as CC experience," as it is human nature to want to expedite the process as much as possible, but I want to emphasize a different approach. While many schools may admit students with ER experience or NP experience, those students are competing with a LOT of nurses that have true critical care experience. Why, if you are really wanting to become a CRNA, would you want to start out your quest by positioning yourself at the bottom of the applicant pool regarding any of the criteria necessary for acceptance? The only answer to that question is because you want in now and you'd rather not spend the time and effort to position yourself better. Believe me, as someone who became a CRNA at age 44, I understand that thinking, but the time you spend trying to find a school that will let you in (applying and interviewing takes time and money) will be wasted if you don't get in somewhere. If someone wont hire you because you are overqualified, you don't want to be there anyway. You can find CC work. I've seen numerous RNs who want to become CRNAs try to shortcut the process; all of them got interviews, and none of them got accepted. They all spent a great deal of time trying to research what schools would let them in with ER, PACU, NICU, Circulator experience. A couple looked for schools that did not require the GRE. If I were sitting on a committee, the applicant who did not have CC experience and/or did not take the GRE is starting at the bottom of my list and would have to blow me away in the interview to climb up the ladder. So much time, effort, and energy is spent with this approach. If you are serious about getting in and becoming a CRNA, why not just get into a CC unit and take courses during that time that will help you kill the GRE? While the GRE is an absolute meaningless testament to your intelligence and ability to perform as a CRNA, it is an opportunity to set yourself apart from the majority of applicants that will strive to achieve the minimum required score. If you have a good GPA, a previous MN degree, one year or more of CC experience and a good GRE score, then you will only have to not stick your foot in your mouth at the interview to get in to whatever school you desire. You can achieve all of that in one year, so why wouldn't you? It's not so much about "do I need this to be a great CRNA" as it is "do I need this to position myself well to get accepted where I want to go?" I won't even go into how much better off you will be once you get in if you do have solid CC experience. Just my .02 good luck.

I have no idea how to relate the two professions despite understanding that everything is chemistry and that you must enjoy the academic aspects of life. Like others have commented, go and shadow a CRNA several times to try and get a good feel for what we do on a daily basis. While not a chemical engineer, my path to becoming a CRNA started when circumstances forced me to take a job at a hospital as a PT aide for ~6.00/hr. I had evolved through several professions not at all related to healthcare, but I quickly realized that this temporary, terrible paying job was the most fulfilling job I'd had. While not 100% the case, most CRNAs possess a love for hands-on patient care that is enveloped by the need for great autonomy and responsibility. If you have a love for direct patient care and are willing to get the ICU experience required and are then willing to dedicate nearly 100% of your life for nearly three years to excelling in one of the most difficult programs to navigate in the medical field while racking up a pile of student loan debt...well then go do some shadowing and see how you feel about it. Not saying that you wont love it, but the fact that you became a nurse and have taken a path into managerial type/paperwork position rather than taking a path to more hands-on work with high acuity patients hints at not having the passion for the work we do that you will need to fuel you through all you have to get through to become a CRNA. I'm not trying to be negative, but the road to becoming a CRNA is long, difficult, and expensive and it is not something you want to do if you are not 100% committed to it.

I agree that if you are persistent, you will get in. Your qualifications are dandy. I disagree that GPA, experience etc does not matter, and the poster who said that is either misinformed or just plain off his rocker. School is stressful in that it is a lot of very tough info piled into a short time, but it is awesome in that you will be learning things you thought you knew at a level you didn't know existed. The clinical portion will stress you maximally, as there is no way to navigate those waters without running into CRNAs who seem to live to make your life miserable. That said, you can do it, and it is worth it. I'm an overachiever too, but I'm all about enjoying every moment of every day...yes, even the terrifying moments that we all experience at this level of care-giving. Be great at what you do, and you can be yourself no matter what that may be. You will run into surgeons that will make you want to dart them in the jugular with your propofol syringe, but once you are out of school, you can determine where you want to work. Since leaving school, I have loved working with every surgeon that I've worked with. Lots of folks don't like some of them, but I can find the good in almost anyone. Basically, when you get out, the relationships you have with the OR staff you work with will be exactly what you craft them into. You may not get along with everyone, but in what job does that exist? Go for it, and just know that while school will be utter hell at times, when you are done, you will be working in the most fulfilling job that I can think of. Good luck.

Wow, there is a lot to address there, so I won't try to go item by item. I graduated in May, and I'm the only FT CRNA at my hospital working with three Anesthesiologists. I work independently, side-by-side with the MDs. I make my own decisions, but we are all there for each other to discuss difficult situations and scenarios. I'm equally respected my the surgeons and OR staff. The only difference in practice between me and the MDs is the title on my badge and the pay. It is an ideal situation, but I had to hold out for the job and fight for it. You can find employment that will satisfy you...I can assure you of that. It sounds like you will be a great CRNA, but understand this...all of your personality traits that will help you tremendously as a CRNA will likely drive you nuts as an SRNA. When you get into school, just realize that you will be doing things the way your CRNA for the day wants you to. You will have to reign it in an swallow it for 2.7 years. It is just part of it, but you can handle it. As far as adrenaline and boredom...I can not imagine having to return to the routine of the ICU. You will get plenty of adrenaline rushes as a CRNA, and I'm already learning that the fewer I get, the better. I feel the rush during ever case, no matter how routine, because I know what can and will eventually go wrong. My rush is doing everything in my power to assure that nothing does go wrong and that everything stays routine. Knowing that it is up to me to ensure this for every patient who trusts me with their life...that's adrenaline enough for me. Good luck with your decision.

They want to see ICU experience and experience with vasoactive drips and critically ill patients. Some programs accept PICU, ED, OR, experience, but many do not. Try to get into a CVICU or a Trauma-Surgical ICU. Any ICU is better than not, but these are where you will get more of the experience they want to see.