ADN to BSN to CRNA = Realistic Goal?

Nursing Students SRNA

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I currently attended a community college and am in my second semester of nursing school. I have a 3.8 cumulative G.P.A and a 3.5 nursing G.P.A, so far. The Nurse Anesthetist program requires that an applicant works in the ICU for at least a year and have a BSN before applying. My original plan was to attend an ADN program, receive tuition reimbursement from an employer (preferably in ICU), complete my BSN and then apply to a CRNA program. Now as you may already know, new grads, especially ADN new grads are not getting hired in the ICU. What is the best route for a person in my position to take in order to become a nurse anesthetist? Which field (ER, med/surg, oncology...ect) would be considered acceptable experience for an ICU applicant?

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Specializes in Peds; Cardiac, NICU, PACU.

Well I have also considered the CRNA route and in my area only ICU experience counts, so what most people do is start out on med/surg or another floor for a year the xfer to ICU.

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I am in the same situation. I am in an ADN program and planned on working toward my Bachelor's degree after this program while I am working in an ICU/ Critical Care Unit. It sounds like our plans will be pushed back at least a year while we get experience on a Med/Surg floor. I am giving myself 10 years to complete my CRNA to be a little more realistic. Please let me know if you find out any way to gain ICU experience any sooner.

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Specializes in PACU, Surgery, Acute Medicine.

I work for a very large facility and we do hire ADNs into the ICU. They favor BSNs all around, but it can happen. If you can't get into an ICU then I would go for med-surg. ED and ICU are both considered critical care, but working in the ED will not prepare you for an ICU as well as med-surg will. It's easier for you to learn the difference between med-surg and ICU than it is to learn the differences between ED and ICU, if that makes sense. You can get working on your BSN while you're in that first year of med-surg, and then once you graduate you can start applying for ICUs with a year of nursing under your belt. You can absolutely do this!

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A lot of it will depend on where you live. We are super saturated w/ nursing grads in my area so there aren't any ICU's that hire new grads period. All of the ICU's require at least a year of med surg, some of the bigger hospitals (and therefore higher acuity pt's in the ICU) require two years of med surg or 18 months in stepdown (and of course to get a job in Stepdown you have to have a year of med surg experience). The bigger hospital in the area isn't even hiring new grads for med surg. *sigh*

I had a similar plan as you but heading to CNM instead of CRNA. So it's looking like i'll be finishing my ADN in December, working a year in med surg while finishing my BSN, then trying to get into a L&D job for a year so I can then apply to CNM programs. Really drives home the point that I should have started this process when I was younger. ;)

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Mke sure that whatever program you are interested in accepts ED/PACU as ICU experience. There is a CRNA program I am looking into, and they are very specific as to what they consider "ICU experience"

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Doing it now. Got my ADN last June, lucky to get into ICU with my 14 yrs PM experience, finishing my BSN over summer and have interview with Barry on March 25th. Motivation and persistence. How bad to you want it? Work hard and do what you have to do and start applying.

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Specializes in med/surg, surgical cardiovascular icu.

There are hospitals hiring new grad ADN's in ICU but you may have to move somewhere far away. If that's not an option and hospitals around you aren't hiring ICU new grads, then I would get in anywhere you can, transfer to ICU as soon as possible, and start working on that BSN....good luck

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