saveitICU

Hello, Wanted to ask those who had received the third year award how long it took after application submission for things to get rolling? I remember the initial application was pretty agonizing so hoping this moves a little quicker.

Shamfrod, I don't remember having to submit anything from NBCRNA. As long as you do the work verification I think you'll be fine, unless the requirements have changed. Hope it works out.

Hello everyone, I am currently a participant in the loan repayment program. Ran across this thread and thought I'd give some details of how the chain of events went down from last year when I was accepted. Applied in December of 2021 and credit check was in the middle of March. Received an email in August that I was a finalist and then received final confirmation of my acceptance into the program in September. Unfortunately it is a lot of nervous waiting. Remember reading that if you hadn't heard anything by the end of September then you hadn't been accepted but everyone eventually receives an acceptance or rejection notification. I think the deadline for submission was later this year so all of these dates are relative. My stats at the time of application: DTI 95% HPSA Score: 18 CRNA practicing at a small rural hospital

Peds NP, I received and completed the check in verification. Just a few questions to answer. You’ll have to complete one every six months while you’re in the program.

Just called earlier this morning as I had received the counter signature last week but nothing had changed on my profile. After speaking with someone I received a welcome email 30 minutes later and now my profile has been changed to participant. The representative said if I hadn’t received anything by Monday to give them a call back.

Received my counter signature this afternoon! Originally received my finalist email on July 8th so took a little over a month.

The information that I received recently was the same in clarifying it was only a notification of qualification and NOT an award of funds. Waiting on counter signature to confirm award.

From your description of the unit you currently work on, you need to transfer to an adult ICU for at least a year, if not more, to be adequately prepared for anesthesia school. You will be responsible for multiple vasoactive drugs at the same time and looking back on the experience I had before school, I would've had a way tougher time transitioning had I never worked with these drugs before. And the overall pharmacology is only a piece of the knowledge you gain from working in an adult ICU. Also, the vast majority of patients you will be caring for in the clinical setting will be adults while in school. After the restrictions are lifted, make it a priority to find a job in a large university setting, if possible, as these settings allow you to care for the sickest of the sick and look the best on an application. Hope this helps and good luck!

Well you are missing the most important part of the application. No book can teach the knowledge you gain from hands-on ICU experience day in and day out. There's a reason it's there and shouldn't be taken as something that can be replaced or cut out so easily.

My program had a 10 point grading scale. 79.5-89.4 was a B, 89.5 and up was an A. One C was allowed the whole program. The rigor of programs, both didactically and clinically, is high given the profession you're going into.

There are hospitals and groups that have tuition reimbursement. I have heard of groups offering students stipends while in school to help offset some loan debt. I have also heard of groups or hospitals offering to repay X amount of student loans if you sign a contract for X amount of time. The risk you take is these jobs can be those that are less desirable for whatever reason (bad work environment, bad call schedule, staffing issues, etc.) and these groups need to offer something like this in order to attract providers. So if you sign the contract --> start working --> end up hating it and quit before your contract end date, you could be on the hook for however much the group/hospital paid toward your loans. Hope this answers some of your questions!

Right now CRNAs are very much in high demand. You can pretty much pick anywhere you want to work in the country and will most likely find a job in that location. With that said, there are many places that the market is more saturated and as such the pay isn't all that great. These are mostly in urban areas. If you are willing to look at more rural jobs, your job responsibilities will likely be greater (i.e. OB/regional anesthesia, greater autonomy) and the pay will be much better as well. Having just started my first job in a medically underserved area, I can't tell you how happy I am with my career choice. Hope this helps in your decision. Good luck!

Hi Gkb1, CRNAs mainly work in the OR and different procedure areas performing anesthesia for all different kinds of procedures. The closest thing to any kind of clinic setting would be if you did pre-operative clinic on patients before they have a procedure. As you seem to be interested in primary care, NP would be the way to go. However, being that you haven't finished nursing school yet you have plenty of time to evaluate what you like about each profession and to figure out what you would enjoy doing the most. Try shadowing a CRNA and an NP. This should give you good insight into the day-to-day work for each and swing you in one direction or the other.

Depends on the curriculum structure but more than likely you won't have time once didactic and/or clinicals kicks in. The amount of money you would make isn't worth the extra stress and the time you spend working may negatively your performance. Not that it can't be done, but the amount of information that is thrown at you at once, especially when didactic starts, is ginormous and you need all the extra time you can spare to study it all. There are some programs that don't allow you to work and others that "strongly discourage" working and for good reason.

Hi pWalsh, First off your stats are more than adequate and will make you a strong candidate for gaining an interview. Speaking to your main question, I'm currently taking the chemistry course in our program and I'm not going to lie, it's really tough. The concepts are foreign to most of us and it's probably the class that I have devoted the most time to this semester. Lots of youtube, Khan academy, and tutoring. With that being said, I know there can be wide variability with the difficulty of the chem courses within each anesthesia program so it just depends on the program. As far as how much it will help in gaining acceptance, I would say not very much. The main determinants (speaking from personal experience, variability between programs with this also) of getting accepted are your stats, experience, and how well you perform in your interview. Having a strong background in chemistry would definitely be beneficial as far as the course work, but I don't think it would have that much effect on your admission chances. Hope this helps!

Hey Cajun lady, Unfortunately ICU experience is required. The schools that accept ER experience are few in number and Fran U (formerly OLOL) isn't one of them. The ER experience and CEN will definitely look good on an application but you need at least 1 year in ICU. And actually as long as you have at least 1 year by the time you would potentially start school, you could apply with less than 1 year given your time in the ER. Hope this helps!

Hi H. Dean, I was an alternate last year and am in the program now. I'm not sure exactly how many of my classmates were alternates as well but I know there were at least two selected, including myself.

Hey yall, I'm currently in the program at OLOL. Just to give some general information about the interview process, it's pretty straightforward. The interview panel will ask both clinical and personal questions. The clinical questions will be based on the type of ICU background you come from. Anything that you say is fair game for them to ask about so don't mention any subject you don't know backwards and forwards. The personal questions will be along the lines of: why do you want to be a CRNA, how will you pay for school, do you have a good support system, why did you apply here at OLOL etc.. Basically just questions to get to know you better. The interview makes or breaks an applicant so be as prepared as possible. Hope this helps and good luck!

Hi switch, After reading your post, I thought I'd answer some of your questions and provide some clarification. Speaking to your past academic history, your performance in your nursing pre-reqs and courses will carry the most weight, although they do look at your overall academic picture. As for how you should go about obtaining your BSN, that is up to you. There are many routes that you can take but I think an accelerated program would be your best bet. Getting your MSN could potentially give you some advantage when applying but you would be taking the long way into CRNA school. Focus on getting your BSN and maintaining a high GPA then get into an ICU at a large teaching hospital. You are correct that CRNAs have a lot of autonomy but you do have lots of direct patient contact. And I'm afraid avoiding strong personalities won't happen either as there are many surgeons, MDAs, residents, coworkers etc. that you'll have to work with. I'm 27 and in my first semester of CRNA school. It was a tough road getting here and the hardest part still lies ahead but if I can do it, you most certainly can. If you work hard and stay motivated, you'll get there. Hope this helps!

Hi bent, In my opinion, work in the ICU you would enjoy the most. I think that would be conducive to you getting the most out of your experience there. The only exception I would make is if you're set on getting into a certain program and you know for a fact they like nurses from certain ICU backgrounds. If thats not the case, make sure that the medical ICU gets all of the requirements you need i.e. vents, titrating sedatives/vasoactive drugs, CRRT, arterial/central line placements, etc. (sorry if I'm being patronizing, seems like you know what you're doing). Also get as many certifications as you can (depending on where you end up): CCRN, TNCC, CMC. Hope this helps!

Hi Annie, Like amnesia said, ER experience is not accepted at most schools but I believe a few do, only if you work in a Level I trauma center where you get exposure to anything and everything patient population wise. Most programs like experience gained in ICUs in large teaching hospitals. I'm currently in my first semester of a DNP-NA program. We're allowed to work for the first two semesters (about 8 months) of the program as all of the courses are online but for the remaining time (28 months) working would be very difficult as the course and clinical load are very heavy. Good luck!

Hi alli, Like the other comments have stated, there is a lot more that goes into being accepted to a program, although your work experience does play a very large part. From personal experience, I was recently accepted to a program after applying for a second time. My first year I was rejected largely due to my lack of experience from working in an 8 bed ICU in a small hospital that had very few specialty services available. I then moved to a large city and began working in a 24 bed Surgical ICU that also functioned as the Neuro ICU as the facility had yet to create one. At the time of my second application, I had just over 2 years of ICU experience. Like Ruby said, most if not all schools like to see that you have experience in ICUs that admit medically and surgically complex patients to prepare you for the rigors of their program and the profession at large. So coming from a similar background as you, working in a smaller ICU may be a good thing as it exposes you to the ICU environment and patient population and then subsequently moving on to a larger ICU you can hit the ground running. Hope this helps!

Selected as an alternate to this program, got a call last week and now I'll be starting in January! For other alternates out there, there is hope!