How to limit the time spend in building for becomming a CRNA?

jj224 · Sep 7, 2016

There are dozens of posts that answers this. Also, please allot more than 1 year - not as an intern, but as an ICU nurse where you actually learn and hone your skills, not just punch the clock and check off the bare minimum. You're young - I recommend going to medical school and becoming an anesthesiologist. It will take longer, but you'll be making more than double.

X123 · Sep 7, 2016

Thank you for the advise :-)

renardeau, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2016

To be honest, even if the mandate is 2025, you have to realize that many programs have already transitioned to DNP over MSN and the few that haven't are planning to pretty soon. You'll be pretty limited in your options if you are only looking to do MSN by the time you graduate, even if you manage to do so early, which you foreseeably might be able to. For example, I did my undergraduate non-nursing degree in 3 years, but it could have been 2 if I went to a different college (where 45-60 credits would have been transferred via AP tests vs. my college that only allowed 32 because it did not accept AP credit for humanities subjects). Then I did a 14-month BSN and went directly into work. Between that and maybe taking some courses over the summer, you might be able to cut down your time a bit more, but again, even then you will be limited by what few programs may still offer the MSN (and they may be far away and tucked in cities you don't particularly care for).

loveanesthesia · Sep 12, 2016

Nursing is a great career, and nurse anesthesia is even better. Plan to spend 4 years earning a BSN; earn great grades while there. Then spend 2-3 years in an ICU. You can travel to a different part of the country to do this, and by working as much OT as possible save up some money. With 12 hour shifts you will still have time to take vacations and have some fun while young. I worked 5 years in 3 different states and had a great time. Loved everything I learned and was able to experience different parts of the country. Once you are an experienced ICU RN, you can literally almost pick any place in the country and go to work within a couple of weeks. The hands on learning from those years is something I draw on daily as a CRNA. If after working in ICU you find that anesthesia is not for you, there are plenty of other options available for an RN with clinical knowledge.

The doctoral programs are 36 months in most cases, so not much long than the MS programs. Why do you want to avoid the doctoral option?