SRNA12191

There are plenty of ICU's all over the united state that are willing and always take new grads into the ICU. You have to be willing to apply to every job in your area and maybe even jobs out of state. If you are willing to do whatever it takes you can get a job in the ICU. Don't let people tell you that med/surg experience is needed or even beneficial before working in the ICU. Anyone who has worked both knows that they are two completely different universes. New grads are plenty capable of working in the ICU if they put there mind to it, you may just need to make sacrifices to get that job. To make a long story short, med/surg nursing, while I respect what they do (jobs probably harder than the ICU) is a pointless waste of time if your end game is anesthesia.

Drop it now. as long as you are smart (which you have to be to get into crna program) you will do just fine with your basic chem knowledge from undergrad. CRNA programs teach you all the chem/physics/biochem that you need to know for anesthesia.

^^It does not take several years to be a quality icu nurse. Most programs prefer you to have 2-3 years experience because any longer than that you are too long removed from school. haters gonna hate.

I would actually say it's not horrible to mention your interests of becoming a CRNA on an interview. ICU managers are not stupid. They understand that 90% of the people that they are interviewing have the intentions of becoming a CRNA some day. They also understand that it is highly unlikely that a person will be able to get into a CRNA program and leave the job after just one year of working in that particular unit. Most of the ICUs in this country are very high turn-over and the managers understand that that will be lucky to get 2-3 years out of a nurse. With that being said they will be evaluating you as to what type of asset you will be to their unit. I feel what is most important on an interview is to just be honest and make the manager like you in a way that they feel you will be an excellent addition to their team. Just don't say you plan on leaving after just 1 year to go to CRNA school. It's best to say it is in your five year plan and you plan to get experience, certifications, and become involved with committees in the unit. They will eat that sh*t up. I know mine did. Good luck.

So I spent hours reading forums about how to pass the NCLEX and the certain practice test scores that you should be getting to be in line to pass the NCLEX. I am posting this to tell all of you to not worry about that and not stress out. I bought the Kaplan Qbank and got about 60% right usually. Everyone is always talking about how similar Kaplan is to NCLEX, but I completely disagree. I felt the NCLEX was much harder. I left the test feeling miserable and I was complelely sure I had failed. I had so many questions with material that I had never even heard of! When I got home I tried the Pearson Vue Trick and I got the good pop-up. I was extremely skeptical of it because I thought I had done so bad. I'm guessing that I would have been lucky to get half of the questions right on the NCLEX. I just found out today from my quick results that I passed. The conclusion I am drawing is that the NCLEX is an extremely hard test, but it is NOT a hard test to pass. The best advice I can give is to not study content, you would be waisting your time. Just do as many practice questions as possible and Don't stress out. If you have just a little bit of confidence you WILL pass. Good luck to all!