Question about Becoming a CRNA

Nursing Students SRNA

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After getting a Bachelor's of Nursing degree, I know that you have to get a minimum of 1 year of experience in the ICU before you can apply for the nurse anesthetist schools. Since you are a RN that time, I wanted to know:

1) What kind of work do you do in the ICU?

2) Do RN's normally work in the ICU or can the employer assign them to other places as well (like, ER)?

Sorry if those questions come out sounding dumb. I have just recently heard about the CRNA field. I appreciate any help.

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anyone?? :(

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Hello and Welcome to allnurses.com. Good to have you with us.

Check out the FAQ found in this forum: ** Read First: How to Become a CRNA FAQ **

This thread will answer many of your questions.

Good luck and we hope you enjoy allnurses.com

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Hello. Thank you for the reply. I have read the faqs before, but my questions refer to the 1 year of experience that RN nurses must have before they can apply for the nurse anesthetist school. I know that they have to work in an ICU, but I wanted to know what kind of work they do there. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

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Specializes in CRNA.

ICU RNs monitor and care for very sick patients minute to minute, assessing blood pressure, heart rate, heart rhythm, blood oxygen levels, respiratory status, neurologic status, temperature, central venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressures, cardiac output, systemic vascular resistence, etc etc. They also monitor and manage pain. They administer medications on a routine and emergent basis, everything from tylenol for a fever, to epinephrine in a code situation. They manage and trouble shoot a lot of technology and machines. They communicate with physicians, families, other departments and patients. This is just a quick list, there is a lot I'm sure I missed. A couple of years ago my brother had open heart surgery and had a couple of complications, had to return to the OR quickly for bleeding, and then had an abnormal heart rhythm with a very fast heart rate a couple days later. I was visiting him, and he told me "you know the ICU nurses are really important, they are the ones who take care of things, the doctors aren't here" I tried not to smile, being the little sister who was an ICU nurse for 5 years, I just said "I know".

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You do what other nurses do, except with sicker patients, higher stakes, more responsibility, more knowledge required. You do physical assessments, give meds, place feeding tubes, use feeding tubes, adjust continuous IV meds based on vital signs (known as "titrating drips"), suction patients on ventilators, call a doc-or-respiratory-therapist-or-whoever if something isn't going well w/one of your patients and you need an order for something different/new. Often, when you call them, you know what you want done, and you ask for it, especially if it's an intern/new resident. You go to codes and give drugs, start IV's, "bag" patients (give oxygen thru a resuscitation bag), do CPR. You help your co-workers when things get crazy, and vice versa. You brush teeth, change sheets, give baths, reassure patients and families, educate patients and families. You travel with your patients to Xray, CT, MRI, etc. You might draw labs, depending on where you work. You develop a gut instinct about when things might take a turn for the worse, and do what you can to prevent it.

Ask around to your family, friends, neighbors to find people who are RNs. If none of them are ICU nurses, ask them to find a contact for you. Then have lunch or coffee with the ICU nurse and ask away.

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Are you asking what a critical care nurse does at the bedside? We take care of unstable patients who require extremely close monitoring, frequent intervention (usually multiple interventions at a time) and various testing -labs, scans, etc.... a lame cop-out to very, very broadly sum up a million things that are going on with any one ICU patient at a time.

Look at the ICU-specific forum on this site to learn more. Check out http://www.icufaqs.org. It is a great resource site I used when starting out in the ICU, and maybe will give you some idea of a critical care nurse's responsibilities.

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Thanks everyone for your replies! I appreciate it!! :)

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I was wondering...and I hope you guys don't get offended by this question...but do RNs do a lot of "dirty" work (like cleaning up vomit and waste) or is that very minimal?

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Specializes in SICU.
I was wondering...and I hope you guys don't get offended by this question...but do RNs do a lot of "dirty" work (like cleaning up vomit and waste) or is that very minimal?

In the ICU nurses do total patient care. The job is cerebral and physical... You get home some days (not everyday, but I want to let you know what you are in for) and your brain is fried and your body feels like you just worked 12 hours of construction. Techs/aides are a luxury for us (at least where I work). You will have patients that are stooling, vomiting, weeping thru their sheets, leaking strange fluids from random orifices, and requiring dressing changes that once exposed can be disturbing to say the least... It can be a messy job, but we do it and somehow get up the next day and do it all over again. It is a very rewarding job, but you need a tough stomach and a level head.

I made sure to shadow in the ICU before I accepted a position to be sure it was for me. I had many classmates that went into nursing solely to become a CRNA, but they had no clue what the ICU was like. Unfortunately, it ended up not being their cup of tea. The critical thinking component and workload were not what they expected. After shadowing, I saw it was a challenge and I was hooked. Once you get a couple of years in the ICU you should definitely shadow a CRNA. You will know if it is for you by then.

ICU nursing is no walk in the park, but when your past patients come back to the unit to visit you and let you know how much they appreciated your hard work and compassion, you know you have one of the best jobs in the world. As for working as a CRNA, I will let you know more when I am done in 2011. I know I will love it for all of the same reasons I love being an ICU nurse. :heartbeat

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Specializes in ICU, oncology/organ transplant.

:chuckle No offense taken. Clean up is an understatement! Most ICU's don't have aides to help either. Just yesterday I cleaned up poop every 45 minutes for one of my GI bleeders! In ICU there is alot more bodily fluid going around from NGT/OGTs, drains, ETT's, and wounds (i.e. traumas). So yes, we do ALOT of dirty work.:barf02:

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Specializes in CVICU.

Yes RN's do the dirty work. In fact even more so in the ICU, at least that's true from my understanding, as I am not an ICU RN yet. You also have much less patients than an RN on a med/surg floor, like two or so. The dirty work seemed horrifying to me as i decided to take a CNA job a few years ago to get some medical field exposure but i got used to it without throwing up, fainting, or anything like that, but even if you do you'll still get used to it. I wouldn't let the dirty work deter you from this field.

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