BeatOU

less. i came down and was offered $21 for a year experience at parkland

just apply! you may be the best applicant, despite not having adult experience.

phoooey on that rumor. i've done it about 3 different times.

I personally know SRNA's whose GPA's were less than 3.0 and I also know folks whose GRE's were less than 900 and still got in. When you don't have a perfect resume, you just have to apply to more schools and perhaps look out of your region. It's not like a CRNA school will cancel a school year if they don't have 10 students with 4.0's, 1400 GRE, and 25 years of experience. If you have to apply to a school who has a choice of 800 applicants then your chances of getting in with marginal GPA/GRE/Experience will be lower. hook'em.

The best adult ICU unit is the biggest one in the biggest hospital in the biggest city you can be hired in, preferrably a county hospital. You will see very sick patients because usually they wait till the last minute to get help before coming in because they don't have insurance and don't see a doctor regularly. Also, the larger hospitals 1000+ beds get a wide variety of patients. A teaching hospital is even more of a bonus. As far as medical, surgical, or cardiac, I think they all have plusses and minuses. Personally, I've worked a lot harder on bad GI bleeds, septic shock, and bad GSW patients than i have on a heart going bad. However, hearts usually have more toys to play with (chest tubes, swans, etc.) Now that's from a nursing standpoint, as a patient i wouldn't want to be in any of the situations. If you can't get in a huge urban mega hospital, don't distress. One director told me that if I had my CCRN and a year of experience, he didn't care if it was a 4 bed ICU; so take that for what it's worth. Good luck, Andy "Boomer Sooners! Nice job Rhett, here's an extra $20!"

there are already laws against impersonating an MD. why pass another, just enforce the ones we have

Sounds like a little Dr. lobbying attempting to come to fruition...

So my wife goes into labor, gets an epidural, and of course I'm all over watching it being placed. The CRNA was great, showed me how to do it, talked about school with me, and was overall awesome. And now I have some questions. First, she talked about the epidural space being a "potential space", could someone take the time to explain? My other question involved learning to place them. Though it can be a painful experience, learning a skill like an IV or NG placment the chances of massive injury are/seem remote, whereas poking around the spine seems as though it could cause some complications...I'd like to hear how people were taught at different schools? Thanks, Andy

Great post! In all of my interviews I specifically asked what the "care plans" would be like. The thought of doing stuff that doesn't relate to my practice makes me sick, or should I say make me have an "inability to facilitate a sense of well being, related to wasting my freaking time as evidenced by spending 4 hours on a care plan regarding the need for hugs." hook'em

excuse me, I am excited

how long till we hear where will be placed in clinicals? I for one and very excited!

a more rounded medical education...

That's what i was thinking when i started reading Miller for school.

dfk, Thanks for your thoughts. If an MDA has had clinical time prior to his anesthesia residency, then I drop my argument completely and without reservations. I thought they graduated med school and then started clinicals as an anesthesia intern, without any other clinical expereince. Basically, i thought they had a "front loaded" type program....all class room and then they are cut loose in the hospital. My assumption then was wrong. My argument wasn't that we're not better off for the experience, but that maybe it's not essential. If the anesthesiologists get clinical experience prior to anesthesia training, then so should we. If they don't, I don't think we should be required.

About this one year of experience debate. Why is it all right for an Anesthesiologist to be accepted to medical school without working for X many years as an ICU RN but to be a good CRNA applicant we must? Aren't CRNA's doing the same job as Anesthesiologists? I would like for someone to explain to me why an anesthesiologist can be accepted to medical school with no real world icu experience, but the thought of getting into CRNA school without a year of ICU experience "amazes" people. Seriously, I'm not trying to flame, I just wonder why they can do it, but not us. Has there been any discussion of relaxing this requirement? It would seem to me that allowing someone to get their BS and then immediately starting CRNA school would be a good thing and allow for a people to practice anesthesia longer. I would like to here from someone who disagrees with me on this. hook'em