1 year ICU experience

CougRN · Jun 15, 2005

I am wondering if there is anyone who has had only pediatric experience before applying for CRNA school? I am wanting to work in a CVICU in a pedi setting but I am curious as to whether I will be limiting myself if I do so? Are schools that only require critical care and do not specifically require it to be adult care, going to view my application differently than someone who has adult experience? I am about to apply for my internships and I need some advice if there is anyone who is willing to give some! Thanks!

Yes, most schools will look at you differently and maybe not at all if you don't have adult ICU experience. That being said there are schools that accept PICU only experience. You need to contact the schools to find out or look on their websites to find out. I know of one school for sure that takes PICU only experience.

loisane · Jun 16, 2005

What makes ICU such a good prerequesite for nurse anesthesia school (other than the fact that it is an excellent predictor for success on the certification exam) is the ability to develop expertise in assessment and decision making.

Anesthesia programs do not have time to teach basic patient assessment. Repeated experiences taking histories, doing ascultation and inspection of all systems is the only way to get really good at assessment.

And equally important is what you do with that information. Processing it all together, knowing what to disregard and what is significant. Knowing what needs to be addressed immediately and what can wait. Recognizing what you can act on, and what needs referred to other members of the team. Learning how to present your assesment and conclusions to those other team members.

While familiarity with artificial ventilation, hemodynamics and vasoactive drips is helpful these things are only concrete markers for what is more difficult to measure. That nursing intuition that develops in critical care nurses. When you can go into a patients room, take one look from left to right and "see" the whole picture. You are already prioritizing and planning your care. If there is trouble brewing, you can just feel it-you can "smell" the code on the horizon.

Nurses who take care of critical patients work in a continual cycle of assess/plan/act/asses/revise plan/act again. This same cycle is the foundation of anesthesia care.

loisane crna

double d · Jun 17, 2005

I have just one question. Most of the CRNA programs that I've looked into all want at least 1 year of ICU experience however most ICU positions I've viewed all want at least 2 years of experience. How, if possible, do you obtain a position in any ICU as a new graduate with no ICU expereince?

come to memphis, tennessee

duckboy20 · Jun 18, 2005

I was accepted one year out of school with only that year working in the ICU. Depends mostly it seems on your interview.

utahliz · Jun 18, 2005

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duckboy20 · Jun 18, 2005

To me it seemed like they were looking for being able to perform under pressure. They know that everyone is most likely nervous going into the interviews but they want to see how much you really know. The application you give them won't tell them anything about your knowledge. That is what the interview is for and to me that is 90% of getting in to school

Kiwi, BSN, RN · Jun 18, 2005

If you are a pre-nursing or nursing student who is interested in the field of anesthesia, I highly recommend working as a nurse aide part time in a high acuity unit (open heart, ICU, CCU, MICU, SICU, etc.) Nurse managers are more likely to hire you if they know of your good work ethic first-hand. And the experience will help you -- you won't have the reality shock of hearing like, 5 different machines beeping that are connected to one patient. I believe that your ICU experience literally starts during nursing school (even though it isn't technically counted).

Quincke · Jun 23, 2005

I got into school with the minimal amount of experience and agree with Duckboy that it depends more on just how long you have worked, although I'm not sure that the interview is the most part. I think grades and GRE scores are bigger at most places.

As for getting in the ICU right out of school...my last semester in nursing school was spent during a preceptorship. I did mine in the CICU at a major university hospital. I learned so much and felt prepared to take an ICU position when I gradutated. There are many posts about which ICU to pick on this site. I wouldn't recommend pediatrics only because you (typically) will not get as much hemodynamic monitoring, drips, etc. that you would get in an adult ICU. There is one person in my class who only worked in PICU. She has done great through school, but she has had to study more with ekg analysis and drug doses that I was very familiar with because of the adult cardiac ICU. Just my thoughts:)

christel · Jul 21, 2005

Penny Pinkly, You should try to look at more hospitals, all the hospitals i have looked at except for one had a listings of ICU training programs. In california and in Philadelphia....some even six or seven months....And most the hospitals i looked at are well known.....

Lucy54 · Jul 25, 2005

oops, see the next post.

Lucy54 · Jul 25, 2005

well, i had 3 1/2 years of ER experience and 8 months of ICU. I was placed on the alternate list for my school of choice. I interviewed with 5 different people and all of them went well except for one that closed my application after she realized that I only had 8 months of ICU. She basically said to go back and get more experience and try again next year. I later found out that a few people with NO ICU experience (only ER) and less overall nursing experience were accepted into the program. So that just goes to show, it doesn't always depend on your experience. I think that your grades and interview are way more important. I'm sure those people had stellar grades, excellent GRE and may have interviewed better than I did. If you don't get in the first time, you just have to wipe your tears and get on track for next year. Good Luck.