andrealhall

I applied without mine and got into a great program and did just fine. It is just one of those things they want you to have because it looks good on paper. Just because you have your CCRN doesn't mean you are a good nurse, have good critical thinking skills, or handle stressful/emergency events well. It just means you know how to study and answer questions on a piece of paper. The critical thinking skills, your experience and your ability to handle the emergent events are what really matters and will make you successful.

Can it be done, yes. I had a student in my class in her late 30's with 5 kids!! However you need to think long and hard about why you want to do it. If it is your dream job then go for it. However I find alot of RN's trying to do it because of the income and if that is your primary reason it wont be worth it to you. I graduated from one of the cheaper schools in a 2 yr program and the average cost was 100,000 for each of us (school+books+living expenses) Most of us took that all out in loans. The national average for CRNA's income these days is around $150,000. Most of my coworkers are paying over 2,000/month in student loan payments. Several people I know will not have their student loans paid off till they are in their 60's. The move is toward DNP and that will increase the cost of school, more credits are needed and your program will be longer in length. You have to decide if that is worth it to you. Talk to some of the newer grad CRNA's you come across. The cost of school now is vastly different for us now then it was for CRNA's who have been in the career for a while. The more experienced CRNA's experience in school may be greatly different than it will be when you are ready to apply.

Yes you are young but I also decided at 18 that I wanted to be a CRNA. In fact it was the only reason I even went to nursing school. I always had that goal and it gave me something to work towards. But you must realize that it will be at least 5 yrs or so til you even think of applying and thats if you finish school in 4 yrs. If you want to be a competitive applicant you will need around a 3.5 GPA so your first thing to do is to make sure you keep up your grads for your undergrad. Then you need to get ICU experience while also adding volunteer and leadership to your resume. The other best advice is to not get yourself in debt, and save a ton of money! My class had an average of $100,000 in student loans and I went to one of the cheaper programs out there. That was also a 2 yr program and with it moving towards DNP the time requirement will be longer than that and almost everyone doesnt work at all that entire time. It took me 10 years to get there but I did it!