Torn Between NP and CRNA

jlcole45 · Mar 7, 2009

What type of nursing are you doing now? Are currently working in OR?

If so then you will have a very good idea of what a CRNA does.

They make great money and many have great hours but they are stuck in

an OR (unless they are working in a pain clinic or the like), and after an initial

chat with the patient they do not interact with them again until the PACU.

Do you like taking care of patients? Do you like talking with them? FNP certainly

will offer a greater variety of jobs but does not pay as well.

You have to decide what it is you like to do as a nurse and then build on that.

I do struggled a bit in the start when I was first deciding to go for my MSN (and I researched all except

administration, including shadowing in each area) , but in the end I chose the FNP.

I get bored easily, I actually still like talking to and taking care of patients, and I like the

challenge of each day offering something different. I fits my personality and offers the most

flexibility. I have decided that I am a generalist at heart and after a short time I would be

bored out of my head being a CRNA, though I am sure I would love the money - but money isn't

everything.

Good luck with your decision. By the way if you are thinking of applying for fall you better

get started most of the deadlines are early spring.

sandnnw, BSN, MSN, EMT-B, APRN · Mar 7, 2009

I tend to agree with SuesquatchRN, waaaaaaaay different! For me, I'd be bored to tears in the OR, vs stressed to tears in the clinic. I like my patients to talk to me, others do not.

Sarcolemma · Mar 11, 2009

I'm an SRNA, I've worked my way up from being a nurses aid. I haven't been bored once yet. Quite the opposite, it's insanely stressful in the OR. Statements like those above come from pure ignorance of what CRNAs do. Its ICU taken up another few levels, with ER thrown in for good measure.

I don't think the academics is that difficult, but the clinicals are on another level. I had a patient today with a seemingly good airway that we attempted to tube on zemuron, and on laryngoscopy found a grade 4 airway. Boring? Not really.

2 people have dropped out of our anesthesia program and were immediately taken into ANP department (psych NP and flight NP) without interviews. I don't think the same could be said about an NP student trying to switch to anesthesia.

jlcole45 · Mar 12, 2009

In response to the previous posting. All MSN students have clearly demonstrated that they

are committed to graduate school and ready for a new challenge as a nurse - just by the shear fact that they've gone through the effort of applying and then being accepted into a program. But as you just stated sometimes people realize they've made the wrong choice, once they've experienced something first hand. The OR setting is not for everyone, just like ICU or PEDS isn't for everyone.

Just because these two students dropped doesn't mean they were lesser people or professionals. They or the faculty realized that anesthesia wasn't a good fit for them. That said, the school already was invested in these two students and they obviously wanted to keep them rather then lose them all together. Graduate programs lose a lot more then money when one of their students decides to drop out. You make it sound so simple but I suspect there's more then meets the eye. And I would be willing to bet money if there was a FNP student who realized they'd rather do CRNA, that they would be accepted into the program if all the entrance criteria were met by the student.

I think this is discussion has taken the wrong course. Neither is better. It all goes back to trying to figure out which one is a good fit for you. The money should have very little to do with the decision There are plenty of doctors that I have known over the years who wish they'd done something else, and now they are stuck because of the money (both what they owe and what they make).

Moral of the story -- do what you like and like what you do.

Jo Dirt · Mar 12, 2009

I'm starting out with my BSN in a LTAC hospital. From what I am hearing, this will provide excellent preparation for the ICU. From the ICU, I would like to think I have a choice to go to CRNA school.

My dilemma is that I have been accepted (pending BSN graduation which should be this May) into a FNP program. I've been thinking, and I am thinking I would prefer to be a CRNA because I can handle sleeping patients better than having to listen to patients drone on and on about real or imagined ailments, then having to try to figure out how to treat the real or imagined ailments, it just seems like a hampster wheel. I love my patients at the nursing home. I feel like I can let loose and not have to worry about impressing them, I talk to them and sing nerdy songs to them ("Worried Man Blues"; they like it, even as out of tune as it is) as I'm taking care of them. We laugh and talk about fun things, but when I get a patient (or family member) who wants to talk on and on about their problems I want to run the other way. It's just too draining for me.

So...rather than waste anymore of the FNP school's time I wonder if I need to just lay out? I find it stressful to interact with people who want to complain and complain. That is my biggest issue with being a NP. And I'm sure patients do not want to hear "I don't know" come out of your mouth. I'm sure they will lose faith in you. I don't want to put myself in a position where if I don't know an answer I have to BS my way through.

zenman · Mar 13, 2009

So...rather than waste anymore of the FNP school's time I wonder if I need to just lay out? I find it stressful to interact with people who want to complain and complain.

I was just talking about this (over a stiff drink) with my wife at dinner last night. At least by going the psych NP route you are paid to listen to a patient...and they tend to have an "excuse" for the way they are, lol! Got to love em.

Jo Dirt · Mar 13, 2009

I was just talking about this (over a stiff drink) with my wife at dinner last night. At least by going the psych NP route you are paid to listen to a patient...and they tend to have an "excuse" for the way they are, lol! Got to love em.

The psychNP at the nursing home where I work is not very well thought of among some of the nurses, mainly the ADON. She says, he's pretty useless, he goes and asks them a few dumb questions and writes a prescription for more pills...I can't tell he does anything, and he's in here seeing as many patients as he can to rack up the money...

Kind of blew the wind out of my sails about becoming a psychNP. He seems like a busy man (and in demand) from what I could see. While he was visiting patients at out nursing home he got several phone calls about what do to for this or that patient from other facilities.

Maybe the ADON is a little jealous?

Jo Dirt · Mar 13, 2009

Now wait a minute, I have four children (the second at home with a drill sergerant midwife who laughed when I would wail out in pain--don't want to do that again) and I was ever so grateful for the epidurals I received. I didn't manipulate or demand or whine...but I can imagine the type of princesses you are talking about. I imagine it would be hard to not tell them to shut up.

zenman · Mar 14, 2009

The psychNP at the nursing home where I work is not very well thought of among some of the nurses, mainly the ADON. She says, he's pretty useless, he goes and asks them a few dumb questions and writes a prescription for more pills...I can't tell he does anything, and he's in here seeing as many patients as he can to rack up the money...
Kind of blew the wind out of my sails about becoming a psychNP. He seems like a busy man (and in demand) from what I could see. While he was visiting patients at out nursing home he got several phone calls about what do to for this or that patient from other facilities.
Maybe the ADON is a little jealous?

Maybe he's not any good or maybe she doesn't understand the role.

MP5PDW · Mar 15, 2009

Here is the only thing you need to know if you are deciding between CRNA and NP....I have NEVER EVER met a CRNA who quit to become an NP...whereas there are countless NPs who have become CRNAs.

MP5PDW · Mar 15, 2009

I would like to address the limited patient contact statement. As a CRNA you do not often have the luxury to spend an hour talking to your patient. And that is why interpersonal skills are very important. You have to convince this person, who is most likely terrified about going to surgery, that you are capable of taking him to the brink of death and bringing him back safely. More often the patient is more concerned with the anesthesia, as he/she is with the surgery. And rightly so. Anesthesia mishaps will kill quicker than surgical mishaps.

In addition, when a patient requests no sedation while undergoing a procedure with a regional anesthetic technique such as subarachnoid block, epidural block or something as exotic as an awake craniotomy ( Neurosurgical anesthesia is a speciality of mine) YOU have to sit and talk with a patient for hours at a time.

Or a local anesthetic where no sedation is allowed, deep brain stimulator for Parkinson's comes to mind, you WILL be talking to the patient the entire time.

And if you are any good, you will also do a post operative visit with the patient.... sooo limited verbal interaction with the patient?

I don't think so.

:twocents:

Sarcolemma · Mar 15, 2009

true. i find patient interactions to be intense and very meaningful, albeit limited time wise. I actually interacted much less with patients in the ICU. IDK if thats because i was night shift or what.