wtbcrna

I wouldn't bother with joining any military branch until you at least have your BSN. Then even as a new nurse you are going to spend multiple years going from a new nurse to getting in ICU and then getting the required experience to apply to CRNA school. Enlisted to CRNA if done all through the military will take you approximately 10+ years. Please don't listen to the BS enlisted recruiters tell you. They lie, embellish, and generally are absolutely clueless about nursing and especially CRNAs. Now assuming you want to join the military not just have the military pay for school and be a CRNA the best route is probably get your BSN then get into a civilian ICU somewhere then apply to a civilian CRNA school and as soon as you're accepted apply for USAF, USN, USPHS or USA's HSPS program that will pay for your anesthesia school with a monthly stipend. You will then owe 3 years active duty time after completing the program. Once you get your BSN or applying for HPSP there are healthcare recruiters just for nursing officer candidates. You find them online and each military branches website or USPHS website. Do Not go to an enlisted recruiter unless you want to join as an enlisted.

The Navy, Army, and USAF all have CRNA programs for active duty nurse. The terms are all going to be fairly similar as are the bonuses, payback time etc. There is also hpsp scholarships by each branch that allows you to go to civilian program have the military pay for the CRNA program plus a monthly stipend and then do a 3 year active duty payback once you finish. I believe USPHS also has a similar hpsp scholarship program. The admitting criteria is determined by the branch and the school. There are two military CRNA programs USUHS and USAGPAN. The criteria is fairly similar to civilian programs with the addition of time on station requirements and other branch specific requirements. https://nursing.usuhs.edu/academics/DNP/CRNA https://armydnp.nursing.baylor.edu

1. Bodily autonomy arguments only work on things that only effect the individual not everyone around you. When a decision can effect everyone else that decision no longer is about bodily autonomy, but public safety. 2. Any vaccinated person can still become ill, but the risk of a vaccinated person becoming ill and passing on the illness is much less than someone who hasn't been vaccinated. 3. The COVID19 vaccines weren't unstudied. The mRNA vaccines have been studied since 1990. The COVID19 vaccines had to go through all the same studies prior to being approved as any other vaccines. Despite your disbeliefs the COVID19 mRNA vaccines have shown to be extremely safe and effective. 4. There are multiple studies showing unvaccinated children do worse in school and are less healthy than their vaccinated counterparts.

Yes, Texas Christian University. You can crunch the numbers, but with salaries averaging over 200,000/yr your debt could quickly be paid off. Many CRNAs work multiple places making an extra 50K+/yr on top of their normal salaries. There are also places like United States Public Health Service, Indian Health Service, VA, Critical Access Hospitals, and multiple programs that offer help paying off student loan for CRNAs.

Yes, financially it is worth it. Each person is different on finances, but there has been many CRNAs in similar situations as you. There are hybrid programs like TCU that front load all required classes that can be taken online allowing students to work while going to school a little while longer. There are also Spring breaks, breaks between semesters, holiday breaks at most schools that allow yo to work too. There are also military and USPHS scholarships, if you want to go that route too. I don't understand your timeline, if you're already a nurse. You need one year critical care experience, your RN, and a Bachelor's degree to apply to school. The schools are all a minimum of 36 months now. I don't understand why that would take you another 11 years.

The research has been conclusive vaccines are not causing an increase in autoimmune diseases. We know this by comparing vaccinated individuals and unvaccinated individuals. There is no increase in autoimmune diseases in vaccinated people over unvaccinated people. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine site has a whole critical analysis on autoimmune diseases and vaccines not to mention many other systematic reviews. The problem with autoimmune diseases increasing is likely largely d/t people living longer and being able to live long enough to pass on genes that would have not been possible even a few decades ago.

Type 2 diabetes developed less in vaccinated individuals than unvaccinated individuals. "Discussion In this cohort study, COVID-19 infection was associated with increased risk of diabetes, consistent findings of a meta-analysis.1 Our results suggest that this risk persisted as the Omicron variant became predominant, and the association remained even after accounting for temporal confounders. Diabetes risk after COVID-19 infection was higher in unvaccinated than vaccinated patients, suggesting a benefit of vaccination. Mechanisms contributing to postinfection diabetes risk remain unclear, although persistent inflammation contributing to insulin resistance is a proposed pathway. Study limitations include reliance on diagnostic coding, unaccounted confounders (infection severity indices), and insufficient sample size and statistical power for testing multiple interactions. Additional studies are needed to understand cardiometabolic sequelae of COVID-19 and whether COVID-19 vaccination attenuates risk of cardiometabolic disease.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2801415

The point/results of the article is that after looking at 1.1 million people getting the COVID19 vaccines and 9 different autoimmune diseases there was no correlation.

"Conclusions Autoimmune conditions requiring hospital care are rare following mRNA and inactivated COVID-19 vaccination with similar incidence to non-vaccinated individuals. The association between first dose BNT162b2 vaccination and immune-related sleeping disorders requires further research.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9008125/#:~:text=Conclusions,sleeping disorders requires further research.

Thank you for the post. There needs to be a couple of corrections though: CRNAs can and do work independently in hospitals all over the USA and US territories. That hasn't changed for over 150 years, and nurse anesthesiologists/anesthetists trace our history back to the Crimean War. The ability to practice independently had nothing to do with the temporary suspension of the CMS rules on Medicare/Medicaid regarding CRNA supervision. Almost half the states had already passed opt-out rulings allowing CRNAs to practice without additional hurdles for CMS patients prior to COVID19. These CMS rules never effected non-CMS patients, which often confuses people about opt-out rules. All CRNA schools are now a minimum of 36 months unless the SRNA/RRNAs (resident RN anesthetists) started prior to 2022 and will graduate prior to 2025. This is due to the Doctorate requirement that passed several years ago that stated all SRNAs/RRNAs will graduate with a Doctorate by 2025 and on. It takes a minimum of an RN with a Bachelors degree and one year of critical care experience prior to starting CRNA school. That makes becoming a CRNA a minimum of 8 years for most people, but in reality most nurses have 3-5 years experience prior to starting CRNA school. The AANA does have job site, but by far the most numerous anesthesia positions are posted on gasworks website. https://www.aana.com/membership/become-a-CRNA

The "profit" conspiracy falls apart when you consider for that to be a valid argument then every country's equivalent of the FDA would have to be paid off, along with thousands of researchers, and millions of healthcare workers. Vaccines are the only pharmaceutical product that has to undergo large RCTs compared to other drugs (usually about 10x more people have to be in a vaccine study compared to other drugs), and vaccines are the only pharmaceutical product that undergoes constant phase 4 studies/post marketing studies for safety and efficacy. Those studies are not usually done or paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. That means that even if a vaccine could get through the approval stage by falsifying data that would quickly fall apart during phase 4. With the COVID19 vaccines we had data being published within weeks of release that showed the initial studies from the Pfizer and Moderna were correct in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. It took tens of millions of doses to find out that the J&J vaccine had increased risk of blood clots and it took millions more to find out that myocarditis/pericarditis risks were slightly increased in adolescents with mRNA covid vaccines. Those types of rare side effects are not going to be found in normal clinical trials, because it is impossible to run a clinical trial that includes millions of people. Every company seeks to make a profit. A profit does not inherently make a product unsafe, especially vaccines which are held to the highest of standards.

I retired as a Major, but you can expect to retire as LtCol for most CRNAs. The blended retirement plan offers something between civilian 401k and military retirement versus traditional military retirement. https://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/blended-retirement-system.html

CRNA schools are 3 years not 4.

Just to clarify all CRNA schools are a minimum 36 months and nearly all of them are that 36 months in length. This was mandated starting last year when the requirement for CRNA school graduation moved to a Doctorate (technically required in 2025 and beyond graduates). There are variety of reasons the two programs are different and the intensity with much narrower focus is probably the main reasons that CRNA could be considered more difficult.

I do understand that vaccinated can get and spread the flu, but statistically a vaccinated person is less likely to spread the flu for various reasons(viral load, decrease chance of contracting the flu etc.). Also, you don't have to feel ill/know you have the flu to be an asymptomatic carrier especially when you are younger. I'm retired USAF. The flu vaccine was the least of my worries from the vaccines I received...LOL https://www.CDC.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm