Question about Becoming a CRNA

[cdcd67]

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.

[anesthesia_insomniac]

Dirty work is part of the job...however if you work in a high turnover surgical ICU, not only will you get good experience for CRNA school but most patient's may be out of the ICU before their bowels are unfrozen! However, its going to be unavoidable in the end.

Also in regard to your first post. You do not need 1 year ICU experience before you apply, you need 1 year of experience before you start the program.

[srna2008]

you just call housekeeping to clean up everything..........just kidding, in the ICU, the RN cleans up the vomit, crap, blood, and any other fluids that may find their way out of the patient

[PiPhi2004]

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?

I would say ICU nurses do quite a bit of it compared to others. We have no UAPs on our floor so we do all code browns and any vomit, plus in many GI cases we measure gastric contents daily. Patients get bathed everyday where I'm at and we have to do all this too. We are responsible for mouth care and any would care (I work trauma, so we get some really nasty wounds from car wrecks, gunshots, etc) You can't be worried about getting dirty, but thankfully you get used to it! Basically as an ICU nurse, we don't get to delegate ANY care, we take care of everything from hemodynamic montoring to wiping butts.

[cdcd67]

Also in regard to your first post. You do not need 1 year ICU experience before you apply, you need 1 year of experience before you start the program.

ooo...but in the CRNA faq, it stated "Nearly all schools require one year of experience in an ICU before an applicant will be admitted to the program. Most will not accept ER, OR, or other experience (though a few programs are a bit more lenient)."

Thanks everyone for all your replies! Very much appreciated!!

[Summitk2]

...in the CRNA faq, it stated "Nearly all schools require one year of experience in an ICU before an applicant will be admitted to the program. Most will not accept ER, OR, or other experience (though a few programs are a bit more lenient)."

I believe what AnesthesiaInsomniac was saying is, some schools will accept the minimum 1 year critical care experience at the time the anesthesia program starts (matriculation). However, some schools require this minimum experience at the time of application (which can be 6-12 months before matriculation; or 18-24 months at time of matriculation). This is not true of all programs. And some programs require MORE than 1 year of critical care experience. And among others the requirement may only be 1 year but in fact the majority of accepted applicants have significantly more experience. Beyond that, it's really up to you to decide when you are a proficient critical care nurse and when you have sufficient skill and knowledge to prove these abilities to the admissions committee.

[anesthesia_insomniac]

You do usually need a year of ICU experience. But in your first I thought you wrote that you would have a year under your belt before you apply.

My route was that applied when I was on new grad orientation. Therefore, by the time I got done with the application process, the interview and the program coming around to starting, I had a full year experience.

I didn't originally plan on applying that quickly, I visited the program and they said it I might as well go for it. I recommend applying as fast as possible. If you don't get in the first time you apply, you atleast learn a lot about the application process overall.