Recent graduate of the Decatur/millikin nurse anesthesia program

[rnccrn1]

What I wish I knew....

 

Care plans must be handwritten no typing any of them up

No breaks between semesters from clinical

Frequent weekend shifts with an exam that Monday or the following week

Frequent activities on weekends with exams on Monday or the following week

All lectures are prerecorded and often outdated by a previous faculty member at times

For anesthesia courses, There is no in-class teaching always a pre-recorded lecture with in-class group work

Multiple teachers making exams and overseeing one class

The majority of the class commonly fails exams/quizzes school does not curve or acknowledge that it may be due to their lack of teaching adequately

Common for one or two students never pass boards after graduating

School faculty frequently speak with their at-work CRNA colleagues about student's personal school information

In this school the faculty/CRNAs are never wrong students are the scapegoat for mistakes

I have been sent to do things alone that I have never done before on numerous occasions at Decatur

Lack of adequate instruction from Decatur CRNAs

Students are not treated well throughout the program, especially during Decatur clinical

A lack of resources for the DNP project/Millikin has very limited access to scholarly articles

May or may not have an anesthesia faculty on your project which is hard to complete if you don't

A lot of micromanagement/excessive control of students

No regard for your mental health

I would for sure say that there is an abuse of power there and students are powerless

The program director always takes the word of the CRNA over the students

The program director does not advocate for students she undermines them

 

[loveanesthesia]

"Common for one or two students never pass boards after graduating"

If you mean fail the max 8 times so will never be a CRNA, that's a huge red flag. 
 

"May or may not have an anesthesia faculty on your project which is hard to complete if you don't"

 COA accreditation requires a CRNA to be on the committee. Some programs meet this by naming a CRNA subject matter expert to the committee, but if they are clinical preceptors they may not be very knowledgeable about the process. 

"lack of resources for the DNP project/Millikin has very limited access to scholarly articles”

Another red flag because the most motivated scholar cannot overcome a lack of access to the current literature. It's too expensive to buy individually and searching/reading the current literature is critical to a doctoral project. 

When you are assigned on a weekend-do you have a day off during the week? If yes, then that's typical of an anesthesia program

Are you assigned to overnights on Sunday before a Monday exam? If yes, that's a red flag. 

No semester breaks in clinical is typical for anesthesia programs-it's a clinical residency. 
 

Most programs don't curve grades, you either pass or fail. And if graduates are struggling to pass boards then it doesn't appear exams are more difficult than necessary. 

Video lectures followed by group work in the classroom-sounds like they are using a flipped classroom which some students don't like. It is key that faculty in the classroom are skilled at identifying when students aren't actively preparing and/or aren't making the correct connections. The classroom faculty needs to intervene sometimes to keep learning on track. If this doesn't happen then it can get way off track. It takes a motivated adult learner who buys into the process. With student buy in and skilled faculty it's fantastic and models processes which the graduate can use for lifelong learning throughout their clinical career. 
 

Being micromanaged by clinical preceptors-remember the case is still their responsibility. You might do the same thing when you're a preceptor.