Switching careers from Pharmacy to CRNA

[contact609]

Folks,

I need some opinion. I am a foreign graduate with Bachelor's in Pharmacy. Unfortunately, I cannot practice in the U.S. as a pharmacist without earning PharmD. This will take me another 3 to 4 years.

So I am thinking about switching careers. I can do accelerated BSN in 12 to 15 months. I have a 3.5 GPA for my Bachelors and 4.0 GPA from a local community college. Once I am done with my BSN, I will work for 1 year. After that, I want to start applying for CRNA programs.

The question I have is even though some of the colleges only require 1 year nursing experience; will this be good enough for admission? Do you think there is future in CRNA for me to make this switch? Any other comments?

msa

[Nurse956]

I think it would take you just as long because you have to get accepted to an accelerated program which is usually tougher than a non-accelerated program, get through the 12-15 months of school, get a job in an ICU (which many do not hire new grads), and then work for a year, apply (which is almost a year long process) and then spend 2-3 years in CRNA school. You are easily looking at 4 1/2+ years to do CRNA. It's an awesome opportunity if you are up for it, but I don't think you will shave off any time.

[louloubell1]

What is it that attracts you to anesthesia? It sounds like you are looking for a quick route to an advanced health care career, so I feel obligated to tell you that the road to CRNA is not a quick one. Say you get right into an accelerated RN program without having to take any prerequisite classes (1-1.5 years), then spend the required time working in critical care (at least one year, but may be more in the range of 2-3 years before you are competitive with other anesthesia school applicants), then take on anesthesia school (the shortest programs are 27 months). You are looking at a longer time frame than the 3-4 years you've said you would need to get your PharmD.

[contact609]

Thanks for the quick replies. Sorry I didn't mean to sound like I was taking an easy route. I already have all the prerequisites done to start accelerated one year BSN. It would probably take me just about the same time to do CRNA as it would to do PharmD, Which is 3 to 4 years. It is my understanding that CRNA makes about 150K. Making 50K more is also an incentive.

Questions I have:

Will there still be a good demand for CRNAs 4 years from now and will the salary stay the same?

Will I be able to get into CRNA programs with 1 year critical care experience if I have a high GPA and GRE score?

[GmanRN]

I think youll do fine. If youre grades are awesome and you have a pharm background they may overlook the lack of experience. A lot of people get in with the minimum in one are or another. You just have to be really strong in one area to overcome a weakness in another.

Execute your plan and just keep doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes. I did 12 years of nursing before I decided to apply to CRNA school. Hopefully Ill get in, but if I dont then there is always next year.