Da_Milk_of_Amnesia

I had 3.17 GPA- work at a Cardiac MedicalICU at one of the best hospitals in the country for nearly 2.5 years. Had all my certs, even some I didn't need, backed up with 10+ years of firefighting and EMS experience. My science grades were good except for chem which I retook before I applied to school. So yes you can get in, but you need other things in your resume to pick up for it.

Go ask a student what school it says on their diploma. MSA students diplomas come from SMU, in case you didn't know. So it's really like applying to the same school if you think about it.

Well in cath lab, depending on where you work could be doing cardiac cath (obviously), maybe EP studied, abalations, Pacemaker or AICD implants, TEEs, Cardioversuons. You could have an emergency come from the ER, TAVRs, Watchman LAA closures etc. Both cath lab and interventional radiology are procedural areas so you'll be doing procedures all day. It just depends what kind of procedures you want to do. IR does a lot of lines, PICCs, Permacaths, LPs, angiograms, TIPs, perhaps there may even be Neuro IR where they Coil aneurysms, embolism AVMs or do carotid stenting. Ever place is different and it just depends on what you wanna do. I don't think you're lazy but just remember it's going to be hard work regardless of what area you choose.

Depends what cath lab you work in. Where I work our cath lab is super super busy, 99% of the time. You also have to take call, so does that sound like fun to you? If so then go for it. But based on what you've said it doesn't. Listen, nursing is a hard profession, my anesthesia group is super short staffed and it's hard on everyone so I understand you frustration but this is the unfortunate reality of medicine right now. The ICU wouldn't suit you any better to be honest, there you'll have super sick patients and still be most likely short. I mean we're all talking in hypotheticals here, without going there and asking people or seeing for yourself, you'll never have an idea of the culture there. So go ask around, investigate and see what works for you? Maybe even consider Interventional radiology? Idk, but good luck.

I work in the Northeast and work 50-60 hrs a week. Cleared 250K last year.

Honestly- graduate first and live with your parents and stack money. I did just this and had nearly 100K before I went off to school. That saved me from having to take 100-150K in loans. Instead I had less than 60 and I'm more than halfway thru paying them off. So save your money, that's all there is to it. Sure there are places that will give you money, but remember if something goes on and you don't make it thru crna school or worse yet you start somewhere and it's a toxic environment and you don't like it- you are stuck there until your contract is up. Honestly, I wouldn't ever take money up front but that's just me. Good luck.

I worked in a prestigious NYC hospital in an extremely busy CMICU. However, I had a great crew and colleagues that I worked with, which made the 3 am emergent bedside ECMO, not so bad. If you want to get into crna school then you'll do whatever it takes to get there, including working nights. Sure nights isn't the best, it's hard to have a normal life but it's a necessary evil to get to where you would like to be. If you think nights sucks wait until you're in school. When you get there you'll see it all in perspective and at that point, working nights isn't so bad. You need to get yourself into a high acuity adult ICU as someone suggested. NICU is ok and I've had NICU RNs with me in school but they struggled with the adult stuff. Cath Lab does not suffice for experience. On average you will be compteting with people who have 3-5 years ICU experience and if you think experience doesn't account for much, then you have another thing coming. Experience is everything, it's what provides us with out 6th sense and our ability to anticipate things may occur, or help us figure out what is going on. Anesthesia isn't about pushing drugs, sitting on your ass and watching a monitor- it is much much more. It sounds like you have a lot to learn and figure out and if your being picky with things now, I don't think you'll survive very long in anesthesia school. so if you wanna know where to do here's my thoughts. Get out of where you are, get into a cardiac ICU as I think you get the best experience there. Work whatever shift they give you and be a sponge. During your time there start to take your classes that you need to apply.

I'll send you my email.

PM me. We can talk. Had a good experience there.

I didn't own a home when I moved to MN for anesthesia school. Me and my fiancé rented but I had also saved up quite the sum of money and she worked to help with bills rents etc. The furthest I traveled was 4 hrs away. If the clinical site was more than 60 miles away from campus we usually had housing- if not we usually commuted. Sometimes there are people within the hospital/anesthesia group who know of people who allow people to stay with them. I found one of these spots when I was in southern MN. It was a family friend of a prior student. I think I went to a total of 6 different clinical sites during my rotations. Live where you wanna live it doesn't much matter.

I remember waiting until July back in 2013. Nerve racking to say the least. Wish you all the best of luck.

I'll pm you my email.

I'll pm you my email .

I'm sorry your engagement ended and I get that it sucks. But I'm a current Crna and I'll tel you the truth about what you're about to do, if you haven't already. Going to once school and then transferring is typically not done, and is usually extremely difficult. Chances are if you give up this spot you will never get accepted back into school should you change your mind at some point. And most schools won't accept you as a transfer. In my opinion, I think you should stay with your original plan and go to school as you intended. I moved half way across the country on a whim with nothing more than what I could pack in my car. It turned out to be the best decision ever. Do it, take a chance and go for it. You'll look back on it and hate yourself if you give up this opportunity. I had someone in my class who dropped after 3 days. It stole a spot from someone who wanted to be there, that was selfish. Good luck.

MSA actually gets their degree from Saint Mary's. So even though you may go there, your degree will says Saint Mary's on it. Just an FYI.

If you have any questions PM me. I graduated from there and had nothing but a positive experience. If you wanna hear my perspective on the school. PM me, I'd be more than happy to talk to you about it. And if you wanna be a Crna you gotta be smart, smart enough to know that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

This is going to sound harsh but whatever. While you can probably get into Crna school with less than a year experience, I think it's a bad decision. You're not a seasoned ICU nurse after a year, I don't care how smart you may think you are. Simply put, you lack the ability to see around the curve and see what's coming next. You don't know, what you don't know and that my friends is dangerous. Things can go wrong with anesthesia, fast and if you can't fix, your patient suffers. Anesthesia isn't a phyiscal job, it's all mental. You don't get paid a lot of money to sit in a chair and stair at monitors all day. You get paid for what could do wrong and the knowledge to fix it. So in other words, you need more experience, you owe it to yourself and to your patients.

Ill PM you my email address and you can ask me your questions. Not that I have anything to bad say about the school because to me, it was a hidden gem and a great experience. But regardless, I'll address your questions, but not in a public forum.

I am overly passionate and emotional when it comes to this subject. It was a bit harsh, but I'm not sorry about it by any means But hopefully the OP does his/her research about this profession and realizes that there are much better things to do and to be an AA. #sorrynotsorry

I can't say that what I'm about to describe is the norm for any place. But for me, it was trial by fire. They didn't put me into any thing ridiculous but i was terrified, and you should be too. I had like 3-4 weeks off before I started my job. I wasn't even sure if I knew what hole to put the laryngoscope into but i figured it out eventually. It takes a good 2-3 weeks before you even start to feel comfortable at the head of the table. I struggled with myself until I finally felt comfortable and now after 6 months...it's all gravy baby! Just do yourself a favor. Don't be scared to ask for help, if you need it you ask. And people know that you are new, they aren't and shouldn't let you sink. You'll be fine, just keep an open mind and remember you will be learning for the rest of your career !

You may want to look into what an AA really does. Are you thinking that they are independent ? Well they aren't. You are medically directed. In other words someone tells you what to do. CRNAs while in some states are medically supervised. We are not medically directed by any means. I push whatever drugs, at whatever dose, whenever I want. No one tells me what do to. I don't care how smart you are, you will have zero clinical experience and for us CRNAs our clinical experience as ICU RNs is what gives us the ability to 'see around the corner' and predict and stay ahead of things that can or might occur during the course of an anesthetic. If you can't tell already I'm highly Anti- AA and I have no problem being open about it. I will fight tooth and nail to keep you and another AAs out of my state. Good Luck.

I lived in Minnesota for 2.5 years during my time in CRNA school. I moved from NY and initially when my adventure started i went there knowing and telling myself that it's only temporary and that I would absolutely be moving home....well not I'm back in NY and in all honesty...I'd move back in a heart beat. I love Minnesota and i left a piece of my heart there. Here's a little bit about my time there and places i went to, hopefully this helps. I moved to Minneapolis, I lived near lake Calhoun. I really didn't know where to live, we looked all over the city and the places we went out to view the october before I moved out there, we never moved into. We ended up in a place that we weren't to sure of but in the end it wound up being the best place in terms of location to the city and surrounding areas. I would say the major metro areas are going to be pretty packed with houses close to each other. Id say once you get an hour outside of minneapolis in any direction and you're essentially in the county and there isn't much. Typically small towns, but nice nonetheless. Duluth is beautiful. Small town-ish kinda feel, I can't really speak to how the city is as I just visited it with friends for a couple days. It reminds me of being on the jersey shore, water that goes for miles. There is a decent amount to do in duluth and you will certainly get all 4 seasons, sometimes depending on the weather it may go from winter to summer and back again quick. Duluth is COLD, and by cold I mean ball chilling cold. Minnesota itself is cold so be prepared. Just dress appropriaely and you'll be fine. There is so much outdoor stuff to do in Minnesota its unreal. The summers are amazing and if you make friends who have a lake house, you'll fall in love with the 'lake life'. All in all minnesota is a great place, I miss it. IF you have any questions about minneapolis I can answer that if you want. In duluth there is essentia and st. marys hospitals. I honestly don't know much about them but my buddy who worked there had a great experience. Best of luck.

As someone who was labeled 'cocky' and 'overconfident' I know what you're going thru. I was received as cocky because my answers to questions came with 'I know' or whatever and that was taken as me being cocky....dont ask me how but what I'm saying is try to watch what you respond with, not how to respond to questions. - Ok so the PT missed a breathing treatment. Big deal. Not the end of the world. Lets be realistic how much of a difference is one neb going to make? Probably not much. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. And someone will probably slap my hand for telling you this, but depending on what type of charting your doing and your particular EMR...you can back time things..Not sure how it works for ordering meds because even as a CRNA i don't do much ordering to be honest. So don't throw yourself under the bus for no reason. Just breath and take it one day at a time. F whatever anyone else thinks or says, people.....and by people i mean old, jaded nurses can really be not nice, why ? Who knows, but don't let that ish bother you. keep your wits about you, don't rush and always do the right thing and you'll be fine.

Its really not that big of a deal. I will tell you now that the grass is NEVER greener on the other side. Things are and will always be different not matter where you go. I went from a small community hospital to one of the top 5 hospitals in the nation and I mistakenly thought things were going to be amazing, incredible, blah blah blah...Well i learned very quickly that things weren't any better. Don't get me wrong, the level of care and the caliber of doctors is very very different. But the same ICU politics and nonsense will still be there, so don't think you'll ever escape that. Policies and procedures will be different and some things will make you say '*****' But you learn to live with things and you'll survive and do just fine. Study the drugs the poster above me mentioned and depending on what ICU you'll be in, study swans waveforms and pressures. Maybe some pathophys of common diseases/disorders just to refresh yourself. You'll do fine, just keep an open mind and don't let old salty nurses scare you or break you down.

I can't tell you what the practice environment is like. But what I can tell you and someone can either confirm or deny it - that the market in FL is flooded. There are something like at least 10 CRNA schools in the entire state and its somewhat overwhelmed with new grads. Also the pay is considerably less than the upper midwest. I trained out there and I moved back to NY and there is more money offered there than in NY, at least 10 K more.