Thinking about CRNA... Advice PLEASE!

AdonaiLoveable · Apr 16, 2006

I don't think I'd want you to be my dentist, much less my nurse, Golfmontpoker. Anyone who gets into any area of healthcare, especially an area where they will be providing direct patient care, simply for the money they can earn, often turns out to be a poor patient care provider and unhappy in their job to boot. Careers that involve directly caring for others (nursing, medicine, dentistry, teaching, childcare, social work, etc) are much more a calling than a career. Ask yourself if you feel destined to care for others in a direct way either through dentistry or some other field. If the answer is no, find out what you'd really like to do and go for that. I hope you find out what career will be best for you personally soon.

Adonai

Alpha13 · Apr 17, 2006

Careers that involve directly caring for others (nursing, medicine, dentistry, teaching, childcare, social work, etc) are much more a calling than a career.
Adonai

Ugh. Can we save this guy from a few more pages of your collective preaching? Nursing is not some "higher calling" and yes it can be a 2nd career choice to some. Take it how you want to, but that doesn't degrade the profession at all. I can relate to this guy because I was a pre-dental student who switched tracks to nursing also. Good luck to you dude, trust me when I say this won't be the last time you see nurses acting overzealous for their profession.

Elleann · Apr 17, 2006

Personally, I'm appalled at how people on this forum continued hacking away at the original poster, even after he/she had apologized for inadvertently offending the community. Being overly zealous doesn't mean you need to be offensive, rude or uncouth - the original poster wasn't even rude, just very young and misinformed. All the posts offered good advice as to how he/she could go about finding out more about being an RN and a CRNA, but the way it was phrased (for the most part) would be enough to put anyone off wanting to be a nurse - who wants to belong to a community that resorts to rudeness, sniping and derogatory comments to defend themselves against ignorance?

I'm not trying to start another argument about how to communicate in a forum - I was just stunned by the posts I read here!

It just seems so unprofessional to me.

Elleann

nycacoustic · Apr 17, 2006

Guess you can say that the original poster is young and naive. Alpha13, you were pre-dental before, like you had stated, but somewhere along your path you sat down and contemplated why nursing is for you rather than being pre-dental. Right? Point here is that you took the initiative to decide for yourself on what is right for you and what defines you as a character.

Young, the original poster is definitely young, and if he/she truly wants to pursue a career in dentistry, then no matter what it takes, he/she should keep trying. Success should not be measured solely by the amount of money you bring in, but the path and choices you make in life, and how you handle failure by being resilient in your pursuit. If the first time around, the original poster doesn't get accepted into dental school, then re-take courses or whatever it takes to further strenghten his/her application when re-applying. But instead, golfmontpoker would rather go into nursing if not accepted into dental school. What does that say about his/her character? Yes, nursing is a 2nd career choice for a lot of people on this forum, but there's a difference between already having a career and switching to another than compared to not even graduating from college and entering a career field as a "backup" when the first choice fails (no acceptance into dental school). If either of you were in his/her shoes when you learned that you were rejected by dental schools and having to work hard as a pre-dent all the way, would you give up this easily? Would you at least give yourself the benefit of the doubt and reapply? I know I would, but hey, that's just me. We're all professionals here, and sometimes a discussion can get a bit heated, and most importantly, we all had to make the decision to pursue nursing as our career because we had wanted to become RNs, and not because one day we woke up and just called ourselves RN. We all had to work hard to get to this point. If you were a patient, would you rather have a RN who's "overly zealous" of his/her job, or a RN who has no penchant in being a "regular" nurse?

golfmontpoker · Apr 17, 2006

Guess you can say that the original poster is young and naive. Alpha13, you were pre-dental before, like you had stated, but somewhere along your path you sat down and contemplated why nursing is for you rather than being pre-dental. Right? Point here is that you took the initiative to decide for yourself on what is right for you and what defines you as a character.
Young, the original poster is definitely young, and if he/she truly wants to pursue a career in dentistry, then no matter what it takes, he/she should keep trying. Success should not be measured solely by the amount of money you bring in, but the path and choices you make in life, and how you handle failure by being resilient in your pursuit. If the first time around, the original poster doesn't get accepted into dental school, then re-take courses or whatever it takes to further strenghten his/her application when re-applying. But instead, golfmontpoker would rather go into nursing if not accepted into dental school. What does that say about his/her character? Yes, nursing is a 2nd career choice for a lot of people on this forum, but there's a difference between already having a career and switching to another than compared to not even graduating from college and entering a career field as a "backup" when the first choice fails (no acceptance into dental school). If either of you were in his/her shoes when you learned that you were rejected by dental schools and having to work hard as a pre-dent all the way, would you give up this easily? Would you at least give yourself the benefit of the doubt and reapply? I know I would, but hey, that's just me. We're all professionals here, and sometimes a discussion can get a bit heated, and most importantly, we all had to make the decision to pursue nursing as our career because we had wanted to become RNs, and not because one day we woke up and just called ourselves RN. We all had to work hard to get to this point. If you were a patient, would you rather have a RN who's "overly zealous" of his/her job, or a RN who has no penchant in being a "regular" nurse?

Thanx Alpha for the words of encouragement and how you made a good point about some of these folks being "overzealous." NYC, you are completely right though.... If I dont get accepted this round, which i really dont see why i wouldnt, but you know how people have doubts about things, I will keep trying. Im only a junior in undergrad, getting ready to be a senior next semester... So i have plenty of time, and YES I am young, 21 actually... Sorry if this offended anyone, and also my so called "Ignorant" remarks some of you posted, im also sorry this offended you as well. I just wanted some info, that is it... If things dont go my way this application cycle, i will only be a senior and can try next year and go on and get a quick masters in genetics or somthing to strengthen my application while I wait... Sorry for all the drama i did not mean to start all :uhoh3:

adam90803 · Apr 17, 2006

I'll soon be a nursing student...few more months. Have to say this: the way people (the nurses on here) react to this poster makes me really sad. So much of this "higher calling," "not about the money," mob mentality type stuff. I'm 30, changing careers, and not looking forward to dealing with preachy, angry, easily-offended collegues. There's no hate in this message. Just sadness. Reading these forums, I continually come across this strange atmosphere of "we're proud, don't tread on us..don't you dare offend us or we'll unleash hell against you...blah blah blah" type attitude.

SigmaSRNA · Apr 17, 2006

Please read some of the other posts here. And you will need to be a "regular" nurse to get the experience to even be accepted into a program.
Minimum of one year of critical care, and most have even more.
Best suggestion that I have for you: Try shadowing a CRNA for a few days and see if it is something that you really want.
You will be dealing with secretions, from every body orifice, even as a CRNA; and especially respiratory secretions. You will not get away from that.
And it is extremely competitive to get into a program. Right now it is easier to get into a medical school, if that is any idea for you.

I seriously doubt getting into Medical School is easier than CRNA school. Having taken the MCAT and the GRE, there really isn't a comparison; MCAT blows it away. On average, the GPA requirement for med school is higher than CRNA schools (as far as accepted matriculants), so that might be overstretching it a little bit.

I wouldn't call nursing a back up plan but people do enter the profession for alot of different reasons; Calling, Money, the fact you will never go without a job. I didn't know what the hell a nurse really did when I decided to go into nursing as a junior in high school. I just say the want ads for RNs were thicker than the book 'War and Peace' and knew I could get a job. I didn't develop a love for years after I started but I least I got the love.

All that to say this; Golf - do what you do. Nursing is not a bad way to go pre-med/dent/whatever. I know a few people with BS in bio and never get in medschool who end-up working at GAP until the next MCAT. At least he could be working. End of the day its all about money (sprinkled with love).

rayman · Apr 18, 2006

One thing to remember about the poster is that more than likely he was advised to seek this. Pre-med and pre-dental students are often advised by faculty to have a back-up plan, career-wise, in case they are not accepted. Granted the poster's motives are less than altruistic, having a BS in biology or whatever was probably not the career he had originally envisioned. Nothing in life is guaranteed, so I reiterate my previous post and shadow a RN for a while and see if you would like it.

nursing 101 · Apr 21, 2006

Offended? Yes I do feel offended but I also feel that we as nurses have an obligation to teach people about our profession. The "OP" has apologized several times and I honestly believe he was just seeking out information. He just didn't know how to approach the subject in the most politically correct way. Several suggestions have been made to him and that's where we should keep this discussion. Everyone at one point or another has made back up plans in their life whether it was regarding career, marriage or even having kids. As another poster said many of us on this board are second degree nurses. Please think about this before flaming anyone.

fungirl · Apr 21, 2006

I seriously doubt getting into Medical School is easier than CRNA school. Having taken the MCAT and the GRE, there really isn't a comparison; MCAT blows it away. On average, the GPA requirement for med school is higher than CRNA schools (as far as accepted matriculants), so that might be overstretching it a little bit.
I wouldn't call nursing a back up plan but people do enter the profession for alot of different reasons; Calling, Money, the fact you will never go without a job. I didn't know what the hell a nurse really did when I decided to go into nursing as a junior in high school. I just say the want ads for RNs were thicker than the book 'War and Peace' and knew I could get a job. I didn't develop a love for years after I started but I least I got the love.
All that to say this; Golf - do what you do. Nursing is not a bad way to go pre-med/dent/whatever. I know a few people with BS in bio and never get in medschool who end-up working at GAP until the next MCAT. At least he could be working. End of the day its all about money (sprinkled with love).

All of the advice given to the poster is great, but we're forgetting a few of the other things that make this profession great!!! I also, did not go into nursing because of any calling, or for that matter the money!! I looked into it because of the job opportunities, in nursing you can work anywhere (geographically) and in any specialty or field. I started in the ICU as a new grad, and would never work anywhere else, I really enjoy it!! Finally, the best part of it all, you only have to work 3 days a week!!!! I have worked as a travelling nurse and it has been a party the whole time, and I've met a lot of great people!!! To repeat myself, those are the great things about this job that make it so appealing, not to mention that I am going to CRNA school in August and I am totally psyched!!!!! So, to the poster, Good Luck in whatever choice you make!!!!

jollyjenny · Apr 21, 2006

Wow! What a touchy group of people! I am about to enter the BSN program and have been considerding going to CRNA school after completing the BSN. I come here to this thread and I can't believe the way some people responded to the OP. Why get SO defensive? I have seen these kind of threads on this website before, and it's a little scary to think of what kind of people I will be working around someday. Yeah, it's wonderful to be proud of your career, but take a chill pill and calm down! YIKES!

:uhoh3:

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Apr 22, 2006

Being in CRNA school is incredibly hard. I don't know how it compares to other professional programs, but I'm sure it's harder than most NP programs (from seeing friends go through those programs part-time, while still working). I could not have imagined what it would be like, nor can anyone describe it to an SRNA hopeful.

That is the reason I personally am irritated by the poster. What I'm doing is not "second best" which is what his plan implies. I do realize that the public has very little education about nursing and even less about CRNAs, so it is fair of us to explain things to him.