What do you dislike about being a CRNA

[RescueNinja123]

Do any CRNAs dislike their jobs? Most things Ive heard about being a CRNA are extremely positive, they all seem so happy and kind of a show off at times. Is there anything you dislike about your job? I met one the other day and I couldn't seem to spot any disdain in his behavior. I hope to further my education in nursing one day and this is a field I have considered but I refuse to do anything that I don't truly enjoy at least 80% of the time. I've read enough about the pros, what about the cons?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Moved to SRNA forum.

[offlabel]

Moved to SRNA forum.

The question is to CRNA's....shouldn't it go into the CRNA forum?

OP...extremely high job satisfaction in anesthesia....one of the highest in the medical field.

[RescueNinja123]

Yes but there must be something specific to their job that they dislike about it, everything can't just be all peachy.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

I think maybe you're asking the wrong question. Rather than asking what current CRNAs dislike about their jobs, it might be more helpful to ask who is best suited to be a CRNA (and who isn't).

CRNAs have relatively little hands-on patient care in the 'typical' nursing sense. They briefly meet with a patient before a case, but most of hands-on time occurs while the patient is asleep, managing anesthetic medications. They spend much of their day sitting in an OR watching VS monitors and preparing meds for various circumstances. They have a ton of responsibility and autonomy, which means that if the crap hits the fan they have to be ready to take charge under extreme pressure.

For some people, this is a dream job. For others (myself included), it would be a nightmare. It's like asking 'What do you dislike about being a peds nurse?' If you hate kids, you're going to hate being a peds nurse. If you love kids, you're going to love being a peds nurse. If you dislike the idea of sitting in a freezing cold OR all day staring at a monitor, worrying about your patient coding, there's a chance that you'll dislike being a CRNA.

It's likely that most people who have become CRNAs are going to like it, since most reasonable people would not go through the agony that is CRNA school if they thought they'd hate the profession. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it that you would like it. Going through nursing school and getting your first acute care job should really help you clarify exactly what aspects of nursing you enjoy, and where you'd thrive. I'd recommend shadowing in order to get a sense for CRNA day-to-day activities, and get a sense for whether or not they'd actually align with what you enjoy.