climberrn

Thank you for the replies. Sorry for the delay, I've been on my phone and hate posting from there. Sedatetime, that website is awesome, thanks for pointing it out to me. wtbcrna, those are all good criteria. Are these things I would find out on an interview or would it be good to talk to former/current students? Matthewrn, yeah the free tuition would be a no brainer for me too!

I'm in the enviable position of being able to apply most anywhere so I'm having a difficult time figuring out what my criteria are. Currently i have PICU experience ( 10 yrs.) so that limits me unless I get adult experience. Any particular schools that take just PICU? I'll get the adult if I need it but would rather not wait. Other than that, how did you start narrowing down your options?

Accepted to peds primary care focus, woohoo!

I could have sworn I replied.... Tammy79, thanks for all your research on costs! Unfortunately I'm looking for a program that's pretty limited (pediatric critical care NP) which has only a handful of programs, currently most are private universities, hence the elevated $$$$.

I mostly want to have information to present so I can convince my husband that I'll have a job after we pay 45,000 in tuition. By job forecast sites do you mean places like Monster?

I've been googling like a madwoman and I can't really find much on a projected demand for NPs. Does anyone have recent numbers from a reliable source?

This didn't seem to fit in the specialty threads but please move this if you need to. I'm in the process of applying to grad school, NP programs. In my research, many of them have a certain number of credit hours required, with a lesser number if you already have an MSN. Out of curiosity I started looking at general MSN programs and haven't really found that many (admittedly, it was a cursory search). Most say MSN but then have a focus of education, public health, or NP. Is there JUST an MSN program or is there always some extra focus?

A couple programs that I looked at (sorry, can't remember which ones) specifically excluded both ED and NICU as experience for CRNA.

I'd love to talk to you about your role, how you made the choice to do this instead of primary PNP, working with the docs, job security, etc., etc.

Suctioning not a sterile procedure? Really? That's definitely not how I learned it and not how I practice either.

Eh, I have a history degree I never used either and the $30,000 in loans that came with it. I'm definitely not alone either. In the grand scheme of things it won't matter. Yes, I hate that loan payment but I don't regret my first degree or the knowledge I earned with it. I just changed my focus and couldn't be happier. Do what you think you'll love, first 5 years be damned. Just my two cents. :)

Ugh, sorry you got the eye roll. I'll never understand why some nurses feel the need to bring their fellows in the trenches down. I'm wondering about something you said though. Many times, when I'm following a new nurse I'll ask a lot of questions about what they did and didn't do, more to put it on their radar. There's only so many situations you can encounter in orientation so I try and bring up things that they might not have seen. I'm definitely not doing it to be a b*tch. Any chance there was some of that going on?

Our facility uses different concentrations so I would not go with 'it's always x, y or z mcg/cc'. It will vary depending on your facility, on your doctor, on the patient's condition (do they need to have their gtt concentrated or diluted differently?). Get used to checking what the concentration is at the beginning of every shift and use the formula given by the other posters. It gets easy fast. :)

I vary. If I don't know them very well I'll call them Dr._____. If they've introduced themselves with their first name I'll do that or once I get to know them. I will call them Dr_____ in front of the patients though.

I didn't read that as Zookeeper saying it was a conscious sedation drug, I read it as like conscious sedation drugs, you need to be in a 1:1 ratio until it wears off. That being said, like the other posters I've only seen it given either as a gtt on a already intubated patient or immediately prior to intubation with a doc.