PVCCHoo

Like the above already said, get back full time in ICU right away. Schools want current ICU experience. I wouldn’t worry about old science classes and an advanced pathophys class can’t hurt. But tens years as an RN already and what I can only assume is an age range already getting towards mid to late 30’s CAN hurt in the application process. Older students and more experienced RNs just don’t do as well in school or on the boards as the younger ones. Over 40 on the NCE have a 20% lower first time pass rate than under 30.

I have to disagree with the above. You don’t go from anesthesia tech to CRNA, but you can go from CNA in the ICU, to RN in the ICU, to CRNA. Knowing how to stock the anesthesia supplies is not required to get in to CRNA school, but being a nurse in the ICU is. That CNA job can give you a head start in landing your first nursing job right in to the ICU. Nursing was a second degree for me too and I knew I wanted to wind up a CRNA eventually so I took a CNA job in the ICU I wanted to work in when I graduated while in school. I didn’t even have to interview to get my spot as an RN when graduation rolled around.

Very little benefit. Like mentioned above - you might be able to get credit for a couple classes. That was the case for me. I could have transferred in grad level nursing research and theory courses. It would have lightened my load, but tuition would have been the same, so I didn’t take them ahead of time. Now getting a whole unnecessary degree - that just seems crazy - even if it was completely free.

Fall interviews start next week. I am guessing if you were waitlisted in the spring you would have to wait til those are over and offers are extended and they see who turns down a seat, so gonna be a while still.

I would just go get my ADN and then get my future employer to pay for some online BSN down the road. Community college nursing programs are great and produce quality nurses at a fraction of the cost of a BSN. They are also more catered to regular people like yourself - someone who has to keep working while in school. You will find at community college that the majority of your classmates have jobs. Find a unit you like and want to be a nurse on. Work there while in school and you will likely have a job lined up before graduation. Yes - all hospitals prefer the BSN for new hires, but in many regions, they will take what they can get. Some even prefer ADN because those grads are local already, might have kids, etc - i.e. better potential for staff retention. You will save a ton of money in the long run. After applying for and earning scholarships, my whole community college education cost me less than $1000.

Everything you have done so far is right on track and also the same things everyone else who is applying is doing. I am sure you will shadow a CRNA if you have not already, but that is kind of a no-brainer. The one thing I would do that will really set you apart is to learn everything you can about what CRNA's actually do. I don't mean reading anesthesia books, but you should know the difference between regional and general anesthesia. You should know what an opt-out state is and what the anesthesia care team model is. This is basic stuff, but a lot of potential applicants don't really have a grasp on what exactly they are getting in to and if you do a little homework it will look good and serve you well. For example, when I was doing the little meet and greet with current students at one school, there was a current student who did not know what anesthesia assistants were and they were training at the same hospital he was. Don't let that be you. Get yourself as familiar with the practice landscape as you can now. I still don't know a lot of it myself, but I've only just started my schooling. One tip I read on here years ago was to read the book Watchful Care. It's put out by the AANA - I think - (go to their webpage and look around for a few hours while you are at it), and is a very long and somewhat boring history of the CRNA profession and the AANA. It goes over how nurses got involved in anesthesia and what they are up to these days. Not only will it give you something to talk about during an interview, but it will give you a solid history lesson on the career you are pursuing. I mentioned reading it in one of my essays and it was the FIRST question the director of a program asked during my interview! Name drop Agatha Hodgins and you are in for sure. It's an expensive book, but you can probably get it at the local health science library if you happen to have a big medical school anywhere nearby. Good luck.

OP must be too young to remember Occupy Wall Street, but this is a pretty safe bet as far as ROI. Imagine being 100k in debt with a bachelor’s degree in whatever and not being able to get a job. When it’s all said and done I’ll owe for school about what I’ll still owe for my house. Similar to ProgressiveThinking, I plan to work a little extra for a few years and pay off the mortgage and school loans within 5 years.

Yeah what BigPappa said. I am sure there are practicing CRNAs with lazy eyes. I am still in school, but the only time I have had to do anything with only one eye was looking in the eye piece of a scope, and of course you can just use your good eye for that.

I’m going to Wake Forest. As for the decision to not wait, well, I figured it couldn’t hurt to see what a couple other schools said while I was waiting to reapply and if I got in to one - I would just go ahead and attend that one. Because it would get me in to practice sooner. Also, the original program I looked at had already switched to DNP, so I was really honing in on Master’s programs to “catch up” to my original timeline that had been held up when I didn’t get in to my first choice.

I would cast a wide net and see what happens. Those stats are fine, but everyone else applying has the same ones or better. I think it is fine to have a plan for the school you really want but you need to have Plans B and C ready too. I did not get in to my first choice and was originally gonna wait a whole year and reapply cause it is a great program and the closest one to me. I scratched that plan and spread out my search and will now finish nearly a full two years sooner than if I had waited and reapplied to the school I always thought I would go to.

I know VCU will consider ER if you can prove that you actually had experience with all the stuff you see in the ICU - but it certainly just seems easier to go ahead and work in an ICU, especially based on how competitive that school is in the first place. Be hard to say you have just as much experience with a-lines, vasoactive drips, etc with 2 years of ER experience compared to the hundreds of applicants with 2 or more years in ICU you would be up against. From the VCU webpage: “Experience in areas other than an intensive care unit may be acceptable for admission if the applicant can demonstrate competence in the areas outlined in the definition of critical care experience in the COA Standards.” link: https://nrsa.chp.vcu.edu/programs/dnap-entry-to-practice/etpdnap-faqs/

Yeah. If you want a job as a CNA you need a CNA license. You can take a class for a few to several weeks for usually less than $1000 to obtain. Or if you finished a certain length of a nursing program many hospitals will hire you in to the same role without actually having the title of CNA. As it stands now, no, you can’t just walk into a hospital and show them your bachelors degree in whatever and get a job as a CNA. But yes, working as a CNA, PCA, or PCT in an ICU is certainly a great way to make it “easy” to get an ICU job right after you graduate. It’s what I did as well as plenty others on my floor.

All this information is readily available on the web, but I’ll chime in on the absolute fastest way to do it. Well since you are almost 30 and in the tech field, we will assume you hold a bachelor’s in something and any classes you may have taken that would have been prerequisites for nursing school are too old for schools to give you credit (5 years is the number you see the most). At the bare minimum, you would need a couple semesters of community college just to apply to an accelerated BSN and those are usually 12-18 months and can be pricey. So let’s say you do that and have your BSN two years from now. Then you work in ICU for at least a year and then get in to a school that starts shortly after you are accepted - realistically at least another 2 years. Then 3 years of a DNP program because by the time you apply there will certainly be no more masters programs. So maybe you could do it in about 7 years - if everything fell together perfectly and you cast a very wide net when choosing programs. I doubt you could work a full time job during an ABSN but who knows? I start CRNA school in two months and I am currently 6 and a half years in from taking my first prerequisite at community college. I am doing a two year masters and it will take me just under 9 years. I could have maybe achieved that in 7 by applying to my ADN program a year earlier and getting less ICU time (I did 3 years). Good luck. If you really want to be an MD, and are very motivated you could do it in just a little more time.

To the above question. Carefully read all their FAQs etc on the webpage. Do not just seek out the highest ranking person you can do write you a recommendation. I chose a coworker who was a charge nurse who actually sees me in practice much more than any attending or fellow would.

I can’t remember all of them. He is putting his hope in Middle Tennessee with their rather large class size. He did well on GRE and has been a nurse a while. But seriously, I did my BSN online for 11K from a state school that has a real brick and mortar nursing school as well. I am sure they have something comparable in most states. I would steer clear of WGU if this is what you want. I know he regrets going that route cause it is making it harder on him.

Oh yeah. If you still have a choice, definitely pick somewhere legit where you can get a real GPA. I have an online BSN from one of my state universities and it did not seem to be an issue in terms of getting interviews. A friend of mine has a WGU one and he is still working on getting in somewhere.

I think the OP means has anyone who obtained their BSN from Western Governors gotten in to CRNA school. I am sure someone has, but it has to be a little tricky. As I understand it, WGU does not assign grades, so calculating a GPA must be different at different schools. I am sure if you did very well in your associates and any other classes you could swing it.

If you want to work in the ICU, take the job in the ICU. I have worked in the same ICU for a few years and every year the techs that graduate nursing school are offered jobs on the unit.

Yeah. Look at the schools you want to go to and see what prereqs they even have. Some schools have none. Some have many. Don't waste time on classes your school will not care about. I took all kinds of chemistry classes I did not need because I thought it would make me a better applicant. Not really sure it was worth the effort since the school I will be attending only required 3 hours of gen chem which I already had for my BSN. One thing all the programs I applied to did say they liked to see was a grad level science class. I took an advanced pathophys class as well - again not even a requirement for any of the programs I looked in to, but I think overall it was probably more helpful for getting in than all that chemistry. A microbiology degree with a B average is certainly not too shabby when you pair it with a flawless BSN.

I called a couple weeks ago with similar questions. I know for sure that physics is no longer required. The PDF paper application with the intro letter stating that you need physics needs to be updated. As for the application process - I believe everything goes to Allegheny first and then if you are accepted, you complete the application to LaRoche. I would just give them a call and clear everything up. They were very transparent and helpful when I spoke with them.

I feel your pain JGTarHeel. I felt the same way you did last spring when I didn't even get an interview at the school closest to where I live (VCU) where I always thought I would wind up. I watched four other nurses on my unit (some with less experience and lower scores and GPAs) get interviews and acceptance letters and it was hard to take. I still honestly don't know what these schools are looking for. I broadened my search to the neighboring state of NC and took a shot at ECU and was offered an interview just a few days after submitting my app. I was thinking "ok, someone is giving me a proper look now." I interviewed there and thought I did very well with it, especially on the clinical scenario. That is a small class and they only take 12, but I felt I was well qualified, but again was denied. I had another few schools I was already looking at (UNC Charlotte and Allegheny) if I was denied at Wake because it is so hard to gauge how much of a chance you really have. There are just so many qualified applicants. A girl I am in class with told me she had a friend who was accepted in to VCU but was denied at Wake, which of course, is the opposite of what happened to me.

I did not apply because I got in elsewhere, but I took a good look at this school and called and spoke to them. It is very attractive for its short duration (24 months) and affordable price (roughly 65K total I was told). I can't speak on their first time pass rate, but it seems very selective. They said they get 75-100 apps to fill 20 seats, but they don't always fill the seats if they are not impressed with the candidates - for example they only took 14 a few years back. You do two one on one interviews with the director and the assistant director and the sessions are heavily focused on your clinical knowledge from what they told me.

It was both. I don't think they adhered to a strict time limit, so you have room to expand upon things you want them to know about you.

This is a pretty chill interview. There will be around 10 of you in small conference room for slideshow by program director. Then a quick tour of facilities. Then you hang out with a couple of current students while everyone gets called in to interview. There are cookies and drinks too which was nice. Interview is around a large set of tables with 10-12 faculty and the usual questions - tell us why you want to be a CRNA, patient poplulation you care for, talk about a time you did blah blah, do you have CCRN, etc etc. The clinical component is very minimal and you will be given a patient scenario and asked to say what you would do. I did not get in, but this is a great program run by the former director of the Uniformed Services program for the military, so I am sure the schooling is top notch.

I'm in! Got an email this afternoon saying a decision on admission had been made and to follow the link to the portal we used to apply. Based on the other people on here who said they received phone calls, I assumed I was clicking through to read a rejection letter. I still can't believe I got in. I had to even go back and make sure it was actually my name on the letter. Hope some more folks on here get some good news soon too.