Did you truly enjoy being a RN?

Nursing Students SRNA

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... I mean by the time you got to CRNA school were you burnt out from nursing in general or are there aspects of it you miss now since your a CRNA? I'm asking because I'm soooo burnt out. I still give my patients good care, but am tired of the mundane non-thinking tasks such as cleaning up pts, turning them, making sure they eat, playing secretary (non stop family calls), ect, ect, ect... I want to focus on more technical things like IV starts, titrating drips and saving a pt during a code. Did any of you feel this way when you were on the unit before CRNA school?

Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency.

Much like you, I couldn't stand being at the bedside. However, my disdain for what I was doing didn't really begin until after I found out I was accepted to CRNA school. However, I had grown tired of the political crap being dished out by mgmt about 4 months before I actually applied to school. The thing that worked for me is that I harnessed all the negative energy I was feeling and turned it into something constructive. I stayed at the bedside way too long, if I had stuck with my gameplan I would be graduating from CRNA School later this year. However, in the interim, I was enjoying being an ICU nurse. Yes, there was a time when I looked forward to going to work and I would pick up extra shifts without hesitation. At any rate, once I decided enough was enough, I used that negative energy and I began studying for the GRE. I studied for 4 weeks and I blew that test out of the water. Concurrent to that, I was researching schools and financial options that would allow me to keep my house and put my daughter through nursing school while I attended school at the same time. Long story short, I decided to return to active duty Army and attend school for FREE!! Now, I have an apartment in San Antonio and I can afford my mortgage as well. Because I'm on active duty, I am enjoying full pay and benefits which means that I have medical coverage for myself and my 2 kids...er, uh, they aren't kids anymore, they are young adults. Also, I paid my daugher's summer school tuition 3 days before I moved to Texas. The best advice that I can give you is to devise a plan and stick to it. Don't let anyone or anything distract you from your goal. Tell yourself, after having a horrible shift at the bedside, that what you are doing is jumping through one of the many hoops on the path to anesthesia school. Good luck in your endeavor...

Specializes in CRNA, ICU,ER,Cathlab, PACU.
... I mean by the time you got to CRNA school were you burnt out from nursing in general or are there aspects of it you miss now since your a CRNA? I'm asking because I'm soooo burnt out. I still give my patients good care, but am tired of the mundane non-thinking tasks such as cleaning up pts, turning them, making sure they eat, playing secretary (non stop family calls), ect, ect, ect... I want to focus on more technical things like IV starts, titrating drips and saving a pt during a code. Did any of you feel this way when you were on the unit before CRNA school?

I miss not losing sleep over some of the decisions I make now as a CRNA. Thats about it.

Also, being a CRNA does involve "bedside" issues. You do have to be compassionate when talking to patients and family members before and after anesthesia (sometimes during eg C/S with SAB). I am a lot more cautious at the bedside than I used to be as an ICU nurse. People are very anxious when it comes to anesthesia. I feel like I deal with more anxious people now, than I did when people were dying left and right in the ICU. Don't know why.

Some of the "burn out" goes away when you are given a little more control of your patients outcome, as stress is directly related to the feeling of loss of control.

That is my psychoanalysis of RN to CRNA therapy for control freaks.

Specializes in Trauma ICU, Surgical ICU, Medical ICU.

It sounds as if you want some of the autonomy that ICU nursing has. Why dont you just get work in the ICU? You have to do it anyway to be a CRNA so get your experience now. The ICU is a different world to every other type of nursing and you may find it to be a great fit. You may LOVE critical care and not be so burnt out.

Specializes in Author/Business Coach.

I work the ICU and have for a few years now. I've done MICU, SICU, TSICU and Neuro....

Specializes in SICU.

Hey Army,

Congrats on all of your accomplishments! I can tell you are definitely a determined person. In studying for the GRE what study guides did you use. Any helpful tips? What kind of score is a blown out of the water score? I know most schools say they require > 1000 but what is a really impressive, yet realistic score?

Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency.

I used The Princeton Review. While many people prefer Kaplan, I didn't feel like Kaplan provided instructions for someone who had been out of high school over 20 years. I think that Kaplan is popular solely based on name recognition and those expensive review courses. At any rate, the Princeton Review kind of dumbed it down to my level...the math portion of the GRE is junior high and early high school level. Also, the Princeton Review puts out smaller more portable study guides called Word Smart for the GRE and Math Smart for the GRE. I carried the Word Smart book everywhere I went for a total of 5 weeks. You have to learn that large GRE vocabulary if you want to do well on the verbal section. Plus, I knew that my best chance of doing really well on the GRE depended on the verbal section. I wasn't interested in relearning all of that math. Long story short, I did extremely well on the verbal and I did better than average on the quantitative.

As far as what would be considered a great GRE score...500 verb, 500 quant, and 3.5 analytical. Seriously, the GRE is becoming less important as a measure of a student's ability to succeed on the graduate school. It fails to predict how well a student will perform...all it shows is how well you take the GRE. That said, if your GPA is in the 3.3 or greater range you only have to score avg numbers. Conversely, if your GPA is less than 3.3 you might want a score of 1100 or higher.

Once again, there are so many factors that come into play when applying to CRNA school that focusing mainly on the GRE is counterproductive.

Sure you want to do well on the GRE, but don't stress out over it like I did and like so many others that took it before me. It's only after you've been accepted and matriculate in your anesthesia program that you learn how the other students performed on the GRE. There are many students in my class that have GRE scores in the low to mid 900s, but they padded their scores by exceeding the requirements in other areas.

Hope this helps you and good luck...

Army, SRNA

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