RN and CRNA

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Does anybody here work as or know someone who works as both a CRNA and an RN? What I mean is that they work in the OR and work on the floor as a RN.

I was thinking of getting my year of experience in ICU, going to CRNA school, getting several years of experience there and then working per diem as a CRNA and an RN.

Does this sound crazy?

I like anesthesia, but I also like bedside nursing.

Anyone with an opinion?

[Alpha13]

Indeed it does sound crazy. The practice of anesthesia is the most valuable skill a CRNA has, so spending any significant amount of time doing lesser paid work like regular staff RN duties doesn't make sense financially. You might as well work part time as a CRNA and devote your other hours to charity.

[rn/writer, RN]

Indeed it does sound crazy. The practice of anesthesia is the most valuable skill a CRNA has, so spending any significant amount of time doing lesser paid work like regular staff RN duties doesn't make sense financially. You might as well work part time as a CRNA and devote your other hours to charity.

For some people, it's not only about the money.

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Indeed it does sound crazy. The practice of anesthesia is the most valuable skill a CRNA has, so spending any significant amount of time doing lesser paid work like regular staff RN duties doesn't make sense financially. You might as well work part time as a CRNA and devote your other hours to charity.

Thank you for responding. It's not really about money. At this moment right now, I don't think I want to totally give up bedside nursing. But I also want to be a CRNA.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

I don't see why you couldn't.

However, it's my understanding that when you are educated at the level of an advanced practice nurse, you are always held to that standard, no matter what role you're working in. In other words, you could be working as an RN but sued as a CRNA, in a worst-case scenario. I've never known of it happening, and I do know NP's who also work as RN's, but it's at least theoretically possible.

If you're interested in doing that, then you probably need to see what your malpractice insurance carrier has to say about it. There may be some limitations on your coverage.

I'm not a CRNA, though, so maybe someone who is can give you better information.

[Alpha13]

Thank you for responding. It's not really about money. At this moment right now, I don't think I want to totally give up bedside nursing. But I also want to be a CRNA.

Regardless I still think you should seperate your work from your hobbies. Find out how much income you want and work that many hours as a CRNA. Then spend whatever extra time you like doing some charity work (that utilizes your RN skills if you like). IMO working as an RN just because you like the work when you hold advanced practice certification is strange and I doubt you will find anyone who does that. Maybe you should become a NP instead?

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Regardless I still think you should seperate your work from your hobbies. Find out how much income you want and work that many hours as a CRNA. Then spend whatever extra time you like doing some charity work (that utilizes your RN skills if you like). IMO working as an RN just because you like the work when you hold advanced practice certification is strange and I doubt you will find anyone who does that. Maybe you should become a NP instead?

So, what about a NP that can't find work as a NP? In my area the market is saturated with NP's, so it could be a while until I find work as such.

At Vanderbilt, there is an option for NP/CRNA, so obviously someone works in two roles. I just wondered if it was possible to work as both a RN and CRNA.

Why is it strange to want to work as an RN sometimes?

So, if I become an NP, it wouldn't be strange to work in two roles?

[James Huffman]

Regardless I still think you should seperate your work from your hobbies. Find out how much income you want and work that many hours as a CRNA. Then spend whatever extra time you like doing some charity work (that utilizes your RN skills if you like). IMO working as an RN just because you like the work when you hold advanced practice certification is strange and I doubt you will find anyone who does that. Maybe you should become a NP instead?

I've got to confess that I'm not a big fan of nurses doing nurse/charity volunteering. Not because I'm opposed to volunteering, but because most of the time nurses volunteer, we end up doing piddly little tasks that untrained or minimally trained folks could do just as well. Work situations usually don't have us doing piddly tasks because it makes no sense to pay a nurse $$ per hour to do the mundane little medical-sounding chores that nurses usually get roped into in volunteer situations.

(The example I always think of are mass blood pressure screenings, which is one of the most worthless ways anyone can spend their time. The folks getting the readings usually are there because it's free, and they do not pay much attention to what they're told about their BP. Nevertheless, it's a wildly popular thing to have, and you can usually count on finding long-suffering nurses parked around tables at shopping malls waiting for the mall walkers to pony up to the table to get the arm squeeze).

Nurses who want to volunteer -- as a nurse -- should make sure that the volunteer task is one that will use their skills in a productive, useful way. Otherwise, it's a lot better to simply work a little more, and give cash.

[Raeth]

I was actually wondering about this today... not so much if you could work as both, but how some CRNA's might miss bedside nursing. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, I mean, if you are allowed to do it (work as both) and you want to do it... then do what makes you happy! Just because nobody else is doing it doesn't mean you can't.

As far as volunteering goes, I think like the poster above me said, you'd probably be doing more good by working more and donating those extra hours. Unless you can find something that really does require your nursing skills.

[smk1, LPN]

so what about working as a staff RN until you fnd a job as an APN?

[rn/writer, RN]

Regardless I still think you should seperate your work from your hobbies. Find out how much income you want and work that many hours as a CRNA. Then spend whatever extra time you like doing some charity work (that utilizes your RN skills if you like). IMO working as an RN just because you like the work when you hold advanced practice certification is strange and I doubt you will find anyone who does that. Maybe you should become a NP instead?

Your hobbies? You are equating bedside nursing with a hobby?

Just because someone is licensed at a higher level, that doesn't render everything beneath that level a hobby. Bedside nursing is an honorable profession that needs no apology. Yes, I do believe that the OP would probably be held to CRNA standards of care, but that doesn't mean that she can't or shouldn't work as a bedside nurse. Nor does it mean that she's fair game for criticism and belittling.

spending any significant amount of time doing lesser paid work like regular staff RN duties doesn't make sense financially. You might as well work part time as a CRNA and devote your other hours to charity.

This quote makes being a CRNA sound more like being a CPA, an accountant whose primary interest and goal is the money. To say that working as a bedside nurse "doesn't make sense" because the OP can make more as a CRNA pretty much devalues everything in her practice except the administration of anesthesia.

In both of your quotes, you advise the OP to practice bedside nursing as "charity work," if she has to do it at all. How demeaning.

Like it or not, the middle two letters in CRNA are still, and always will be, RN. Although there are practitioners who see the RN aspect of the advanced practice license as nothing more than a hurdle to be gotten over as quickly as possible, there are others who understand the core values that are (or should be) at the heart of any nursing licensure at any level.

If it is only about the money, you have a point. If there are other factors involved, job satisfaction, desire for direct patient and family care, intention to keep non-anesthesia related skills honed, etc. then bedside nursing ought to be an acceptable option for anyone who cares to practice it.

Incidentally, I know plenty of docs and nurses who work side jobs as paramedics and EMTs. They relish the differences in their various workplaces and do not see the lower level license as being beneath them.

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Your hobbies? You are equating bedside nursing with a hobby?

Just because someone is licensed at a higher level, that doesn't render everything beneath that level a hobby. Bedside nursing is an honorable profession that needs no apology. Yes, I do believe that the OP would probably be held to CRNA standards of care, but that doesn't mean that she can't or shouldn't work as a bedside nurse. Nor does it mean that she's fair game for criticism and belittling.

This quote makes being a CRNA sound more like being a CPA, an accountant whose primary interest and goal is the money. To say that working as a bedside nurse "doesn't make sense" because the OP can make more as a CRNA pretty much devalues everything in her practice except the administration of anesthesia.

In both of your quotes, you advise the OP to practice bedside nursing as "charity work," if she has to do it at all. How demeaning.

Like it or not, the middle two letters in CRNA are still, and always will be, RN. Although there are practitioners who see the RN aspect of the advanced practice license as nothing more than a hurdle to be gotten over as quickly as possible, there are others who understand the core values that are (or should be) at the heart of any nursing licensure at any level.

If it is only about the money, you have a point. If there are other factors involved, job satisfaction, desire for direct patient and family care, intention to keep non-anesthesia related skills honed, etc. then bedside nursing ought to be an acceptable option for anyone who cares to practice it.

Incidentally, I know plenty of docs and nurses who work side jobs as paramedics and EMTs. They relish the differences in their various workplaces and do not see the lower level license as being beneath them.

Thank you for your response. The end of your quote is the answer I was looking for; there are some who work in different roles.

I think anesthesia is interesting, but I also can't see never working the floor again.

There is still plenty of patient contact with one patient at a time in anesthsia, I just not want to lose all the skills I gain as a bedside nurse.

I planned to do something like work at a hospital as a CRNA and then per diem as an anesthetist in ICU at another hospital. I like doing patient teaching and a whole host of other things about nursing.

DO you think that a hopsital will be hesitant to hire me if I have the advanced degree but apply for the RN job?

Maybe I'm too ambitious...