JSBSN

As it's been said over and over again... It's the whole picture. Experience, attitude, leadership, certifications, GPA, GRE, type of unit, communication skills, etc etc etc. But your GPA is fine if you want this specific question answered. Good luck.

It's 1mg/min x 6 hrs followed by 0.5. Not mg/kg/min. Weight based is 0.8mcg/kg/min usually and thats typically a more aggressive dose.

I was recently accepted. Unfortunately I can't speak from experience other then talking with current students and faculty, but they pride themselves in how they prepare their students to practice independently in all settings. TONS of lines, epidurals, regional experience. A student I spoke with has 20+ open hearts by her final year and is still doing her heart rotation. She does all her own lines and gives report to the CVICU at the end of the case. I am confident in my future education. I hope some current SRNAs and alumni can give some better insight for you!

Haha! I love this. Thanks all. CCRN-CSC-CMC..... sorry but you are all expiring in 1.5 years.

Any reason to maintain AACN membership or keep up with CCRN and other certs as an SRNA/CRNA?

I got in this week and I've told everyone including my manager. 9 months until the start of the program. She wrote me a letter of rec so she knows I applied. Fortunately I have a good relationship with those I work with. We've had several RN's go to school in the last couple of years and there is very rarely hard feelings. Most of us have been hard workers, involved in committees, and leaders in the unit. Hopefully you will have support.

1.5 cc air in, 1.5 cc air out... How can there be any residual air if the syringe passively fills back up to the 1.5 cc mark?

That's what I meant. I see I accidentally said supply greater then demand in code in my first post.

Oh and a grad level patho or pharm course wouldn't hurt! That's what I took to show my academic abilities NOW.

I got in with 3.1. High acuity CVICU, great GRE score, committees, charge nurse, CCRN-CSC-CMC... I'm a lot more mature then when I was 18-19 and they get that. Just keep moving forward towards your dreams. Make the grades happen now and own up to your mistakes. You'll be fine and above all, pray!

We do therapeutic hypothermia quite a bit in our unit. We mostly do it on out of hospital WITNESSED arrests. Those that were unwittnessed have had little success because no one knows how long the patient was down before resuscitation efforts were started. We have also done therapeutic hypothermia on in-hospital arrest patients as well, but generally these patients are MORE sick (because they are already in the hospital of course) and again may not have quite as good outcomes. It works best on those with witnessed arrests because generally CPR is started earlier and there is a rough idea of how long they were down. Our protocol is specifically for vtach/vfib arrest. The problem with trying to use it on a patient who has PEA is that PEA is usually caused by something else going on (sepsis, metabolic problems, kindey failure, shock, etc) that makes it more dangerous to cool them. The REASON for cooling is that it slows down metabolism and preserves brain function. Nothing can be done about the initial hypoxic event, but the SECONDAY injury (reperfusion injury, free radical damage, edema) can be limited by cooling them. We had a 29 year old patient who was down for approx 20 minutes WITHOUT CPR. We used our arctic sun machines and treated him with therapeutic hypothermia. He was even posturing for a day or so. He ended up going on CRRT and needed an oscilator for ARDS. He walked out of the hospital 3 weeks later completely neurologically intact!!! He's still doing great and back to work a couple months later.

What do you want to DO? You shouldn't pick a track because its easier/cheaper/faster. If you want to be a CRNA, get your BSN and get into a critical care area. If you want to do anesthesia without going to nursing school, go the premed route and apply to anesthesia assistant schools (however you won't have the degree of autonomy that many CRNA's enjoy). If you want to be an MD then go to med school.

My problem is I only have the one "nursing" chemistry that my school required of me. I wasn't planning on ever going back to school. I've already started applying and I've had a couple "not this year"s and an interview invite. Obviously if all goes well in the interview this won't be an issue, I just want to be prepared for if I have to reapply next year with more sciences. If that's the case looks like I might have to bite the bullet and do a year if gen chems so I'm prepared for ochem...

truly it comes down to who you know and making connections. ask to shadow in various units and find opportunities to talk with managers.

Exactly, you need to speak up when things aren't being done correctly, MD's make mistakes too even though they might disagree.