the road to CRNA

[RN41]

Hi All,

I am an RN with 4 years of experience in Labor and Delivery and one year of experience in psych nursing (in the areas of addiction and eating disorders). About eight years separates the L&D and psych, during which time I was a full-time mom. I am currently working in a private treatment center, but really feeling the need to pursue ICU as a means of working toward certification as Registered Nurse Anesthetist. I loved ICU when I was in nursing school and now wish that I had gone that route in my career 12 years ago . Is it too late? Am I all washed up? Any advice would be wonderful FYI--I hold a BA in Anthropology and the ADN in nursing. Would I be able to pursue an RN to MSN track?

Thanks!

MomRN

[XingtheBBB, BSN, RN]

I'd like to think it's not too late! I worked in pediatrics for 6 years and OR for 4 years. It took a long maternity leave to realize that the CRNAs I worked with were right... it would be a good career for me. I came back from being a stay-at-home-mom to working in the ICU, part-time. With no ICU or even adult M/S experience. I still have to finish my BSN (you, too?) then I'll work on picking up those FT hours. There is no RN-MSN in anesthesia and getting an MSN in a different field will not help us- there is no post-master's cert and many schools will require you take all of your grad level classes from them (or at least pay for them).

[RN41]

So there's still hope! Thank you for the encouragement. I am thinking that maybe the first step should be to secure an ICU preceptorship and gear up to start "thinking like an ICU nurse". It looks like there's no avoiding the BSN, even with a Bachelor's degree in another field??? Thank you again for responding :)

[detroitdano]

I am not sure about other schools as I've never looked elsewhere, but you can't become a CRNA with a RN to MSN here. You need to have a BSN through the college's nursing program here (or from another school) and then you have to apply to the college of pharmacy for the CRNA program.

[studentinnursing]

First, I am not a CRNA or SRNA, but I have really researched this; I am 36 and I didn't want to "waste" time doing something that might be in the wrong direction once I decided to go back to school, and I checked out CRNA for months. You do need a BSN, but with a Bachelor's in another field, this may mean you just need a "few" classes to make it specific to nursing/science, so it really shouldn't take you too long, and hey, if you're working in ICU while you do it . . . most if not all of the BSN you can do online and then of course you use your job for the clinical part, so you're way ahead of me! Here in my state, yes, you first have to have that BSN, and then we have about 8 university's who have a Master's in Anesthesia program; but my state has more than some others I've looked at, thank goodness, so definitely see how far you'll have to travel for the CRNA; for those of us with children/family, it means uprooting their lives if we have to move to complete MSN/CRNA. Just check out every school within an acceptable traveling distance to you and go from there. Good luck to you!