Relatively High CRNA Wages.

Specialties CRNA

Published

Simple question: Why are CRNA's salaries higher than those of other advanced practice nurses' salaries?

I was having a discussion with several other of my fellow nursing students on our future aspirations and the handful of us that wanted to pursue advanced degrees (most want at least a MSN) got into a debate concerning why we wanted to go this route. One wants to become a pediatric Nurse Practitioner, one loves education and wants to continue with an MSN and possibly further and I and two others are eyeballing the CRNA option.

My peers stated that going the CRNA route provided more "bang for the buck"--their outlook is that if they're going to spend the money and time for a Master's they might as well "get paid."

I believe that this is the (highly unfortunate) reality of certain people's perspective. I personally know a lawyer, two physician assistants, and even one police officer looking into becoming a nurse anesthetist and the large salary plays a BIG part in their decision. I call this the "show me the money" syndrome and regularly voice my trepidation that their viewpoint (or lack thereof) raises some concerns...to say the least.

To me, it appears that everyone and their brother fancy themselves as future nurse anesthetists, and it irritates me to no end to see people looking only at the $$$.

Specializes in Anesthesia.
.......90% of CRNAs work in some kind of group setting where they are "collaborating" with MDAs. .......

Sorry, that A$A propaganda won't fly on this BB.

Beutler's 1988 research showed that 33% of CRNAs work without benefit of MDA stupervision.

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I really am not going to respond to anything else. To be honest, I would know you without even seeing you. Smart remarks are not professional at all. You put your thought in the air. You should have been ready for whatever. My best advise is be careful what you say, because somethings are best said not said at all. I have nothing against you, it just sounds to me that you take things way to serious. Chill out, it is just a conversation.

Umm, I think somebody needs to switch to decaf...

Nowhere in my post did I say that I wished for lower wages and/or was "offended" by a CRNA'a higher wage. Please show me where I even inferred such a notion.

You should take the time to actually read my post before making a rambling, reactionary reply.

I was simply asking about the relatively higher wage of certain advanced practice nurses over others. I even went so far as to give some background information on how this topic even came up among NURSING students. There were no ulterior implications.

If your answer is "supply and demand" well then I can go along with that with no problems.

Cheers!

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I really am not going to respond to anything else. To be honest, I would know you without even seeing you. Smart remarks are not professional at all. You put your thought in the air. You should have been ready for whatever. My best advise is be careful what you say, because somethings are best said not said at all. I have nothing against you, it just sounds to me that you take things way to serious. Chill out, it is just a conversation.

I digress...the decaf comment was a touch unnecessary.

However, I stand behind everything else I said.

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Sorry, that A$A propaganda won't fly on this BB.

Beutler's 1988 research showed that 33% of CRNAs work without benefit of MDA stupervision.

Who said anything about "supervision"? Read my post again.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Who said anything about "supervision"? Read my post again.

Independent CRNAs are "few and far between," only 10%, you say. Ridiculous. According to Beutler, one third of CRNAs work independently. I believe the figure is actually higher.

That "10%" has become standard A$A propaganda. No amount of repitition will ever make it true. In fact, dishonest garbage like this

http://www.asahq.org/Washington/HR1932FINAL.pdf

only further convinces Congress and State legislators that greed alone remains the doctors' prime motivator.

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Hey deepz, not that I disagree with you or anything, but quoting a twenty year old study isn't the greatest support for your argument. Do you know of any more recent statistics? I'm curious what the ratios really are.

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Platon20

When did you come to the conclusion that CRNAs do not manage vents in the OR? When CRNAs start critical care drips on a pt in the OR this is not considered CC? When we give drugs to maintain a pt's hemodynamic status I guess this is not CC. And those of us who do cardiac anesthesia and institute many life saving drips that the pt is maintained on in SICU as an extension from the OR are not doing CC right? You need to become more informed about what it is that CRNAs do before making uninformed statements.

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Let me just say. As a student who has just completed the first year of TWU's CRNA program. If you are not willing to commit 8-10 hours a day/every day. If you are not willing to live in your books, dream your notes, have nightmares about action potentials and Mean Alveolar Concentrations of various volatile gases. If you are not ready to put more stress on your relationships (family and friends) than you ever thought possible. If you are not able to realize in yourself that you can and will do this no matter what. DO NOT attempt Nurse Anesthesia! However, if you are willing and able to do all of the above. You will never be the same, If nothing else this last year has been an eye opening experience for me. I failed to take the program as seriously as I should have during the first semester. I thought that I would have no problem what so ever, seen as how I hardly had to study in order to get straight A's in college and nursing school. I assure you that is not the case. If someone is reading this forum and thinking that they will not have difficulty with the classes. Please, please rethink this foolishness. I was lucky enough to get my proverbial head out of my ass soon enough so as not to lose all hope of passing, and by the way in Graduate school thats an (83 or better). After surviving X's, I feel that I have almost earned that right to make this Higher wage everyone is talking about.

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In terms of nursing, the "ultimate" is an NP trained in critical care. An NP trained in critical care does MANY MANY MANY MORE THINGS RELATED TO CC than a CRNA ever would. CRNAs generally dont manage vent settings in the ICU for example, which is the bread and butter of critical care management.

Have to disagree with you , platon. It is a well accepted comparison in nursing, that nurse anesthesia is in many ways an extension of critical care nursing skills. CRNAs do in fact manage vent settings, but I would not choose that particular aspect of critical care as the best exemplar of the specialty.

Critical care by its nature involves the care of complex patients who are either unstable, or at risk of becoming unstable. Surgery deliberately induces patient instability. The number one job in anesthesia is to maintain that balance, and provide the patient with stability. Yes, our job also involves providing an environment of analgesia, amnesia and immobility. But the priority is always patient stability-safety first.

And we are charged with maintaining that stability regardless of what happens. The patient may already be near death, with multiple systems involved-we have to manage all of them and do our best to restore health.

Or the patient may be 100% healthy to begin with. One might think that patient safety is easier in this setting, and sometimes it is. But the nature of surgery and anesthesia is that anything can happen to any patient at any time. It is often the unexpected emergency, that occurs in a routine case, involving a well patient that is the most challenging to manage, and where anesthesia really proves their value, and earns their money (see, I actually made a connection to the original thread!).

Most definitely, there is a connection between critical care nursing and anesthesia. Critical care nursing is a great background to become a nurse anesthetist. It is not the only path to nurse anesthesia, and it is possible to become a great nurse anesthetist having a different background. But nurses who do not like critical care, and/or are not good at it, are very likely not suited for anesthesia.

loisane crna

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jheathRRNA, thank you for your post, and welcome to allnurses.com.

Let me just say. As a student who has just completed the first year of TWU's CRNA program. If you are not willing to commit 8-10 hours a day/every day. If you are not willing to live in your books, dream your notes, have nightmares about action potentials and Mean Alveolar Concentrations of various volatile gases. If you are not ready to put more stress on your relationships (family and friends) than you ever thought possible. If you are not able to realize in yourself that you can and will do this no matter what. DO NOT attempt Nurse Anesthesia! However, if you are willing and able to do all of the above. You will never be the same, If nothing else this last year has been an eye opening experience for me. I failed to take the program as seriously as I should have during the first semester. I thought that I would have no problem what so ever, seen as how I hardly had to study in order to get straight A's in college and nursing school. I assure you that is not the case. If someone is reading this forum and thinking that they will not have difficulty with the classes. Please, please rethink this foolishness. I was lucky enough to get my proverbial head out of my ass soon enough so as not to lose all hope of passing, and by the way in Graduate school thats an (83 or better). After surviving X's, I feel that I have almost earned that right to make this Higher wage everyone is talking about.
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