Pre-Drafts | enc2135

Research Proposal | 250 Words

During the process of choosing a topic, I found it difficult to settle with one because of the lack of academic research. But then I was told to not worry about the academic research so much. I also had a little trouble understanding the assignment because I put down alcoholics and the breast cancer community as a topic, which are not communities I want to be a part of, yet am acquainted with. But I think I got it now. I’m a nursing major, so I’m going to write about the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA’s) community as my large community. I chose this because it’s a very small, underrated community in the medical field; always behind curtains and nobody rarely ever hears about that profession unless they know someone in the field or they are trying to become one. It’s also what I’m trying to be in the future. My local community will be the CRNA students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. I’ve lived around the area for over 5 years and a lot of my friends and family attend the university, so I’m familiar with it even though it’s not local to where I’m living now. I will be interviewing one of my cousin’s friends through Skype, who is currently in the process of earning her master’s to become a CRNA at Duke University. Along with her experience and knowledge, I will also be researching the process of becoming a CRNA as well as the specifics of a CRNA job and why it differs from other nurses. I will also be touching on the differences between a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and an anesthesiologist, because a lot of people assume they’re the same. I would shadow a CRNA, but you can’t do that unless you’re a registered nurse or a CRNA student, so I will be gaining that information from the person I’m interviewing. My text will be a report sheet and/or medical history sheet – which have different names but are kind of the same thing in the CRNA setting. A report sheet is what an ICU nurse would fill out about a patient before a doctor or someone higher than a nurse would come to handle the patient. Which is important because the doctor would have to look at the sheet to figure out what’s going on with the patient, based on the observations and tests the nurse made prior. And a medical history sheet is self-explanatory, which is important for a CRNA to know what anesthesia to use based on one’s medical history, because there are certain drugs you can’t use if someone was a certain drug that counteracts that or makes it worse.

Interview | CRNA Student

What is your name and where do you go to school?
- My name is Aisha, I’m currently 25 years old and I’m in my second semester here at Duke University for nursing anesthesiology.
What was the process like for you when applying to CRNA school?
- Well, I went to VCU for four years, did undergrad and nursing school there. My overall GPA was a 3.44, which isn’t that high compared to a lot of people, but what I think got me some bonus points on my resume/application was that I played D1 soccer during my years at VCU. I was on the road all the time, travelling for games and I basically had to self-teach myself the material. I would also have to wake up early at 4 AM to lift and workout before my clinicals at 6AM. I definitely played that up during my interviews and on my applications. I didn’t do that to toot my own horn, but it really shows the kind of person I am. Being a student athlete and juggling school shows that you can manage your time.
How many years were you an ICU registered nurse before you applied to CRNA school?
- I was a registered nurse for 2 years before I applied, and that’s usually the perfect amount of time for critical care experience if you don’t want to spend your whole life as an RN.
Which ICU did you choose as a registered nurse?
- I chose to be a Cardiac Surgery ICU, sometimes it’s also known as a Cardiovascular ICU. However, don’t get it mixed up because that is different from Cardiac ICU.
What did you do in Cardiac Surgery ICU?
- RN’s in this ICU work with heart transplant patients. When something goes wrong with the heart, you don’t send these patients to a neuro unit, you send them to CSICU, if they were to have surgery. You can look at my unit as a mini OR (operating room), because a lot of the times we opened up bedside and the rooms were turned into an OR. This was in my hospital, so I can’t speak for every hospital out there. We took on a lot of cases and we were high volume.
Why did you choose to work in this specific ICU?
- The main reason was because I didn’t want to give CRNA schools any reason or any doubt not to accept me. I believe, personally, that Cardiac Surgery ICU is one of the most advanced ICU, if not the most, and I want to be able to put on my resume everything that I did and was capable of doing, because I dealt with a lot of things that other ICU’s would do just being in CSICU. You want to be pick when you’re picking an ICU, because you want to gain as must experience as possible. That’s if you have options, if not just take what opens up. Had Cardiac Surgery ICU not open, I would’ve taken cardiac ICU or surgical ICU.
How was your first semester of CRNA school?
- This shit’s hard. I had phenomenal professors, but it was challenging all around. Studying 8 hours a day? Never done that in my life. Not understanding something the first time I hear it? Very few times in my life. I wasn’t even in clinical and there was so many different things to juggle: presentations, papers, flashcards, pictures, redoing powerpoints. Not to mention, I can’t study at home because I always find something to do other than studying, so being at school all the time was challenging. The most challenging thing was just the difficulty of adjusting.
What were your grades for the first semester of CRNA school?
- I took 5 classes my first semester and ended up with 2 A’s, 2 A minuses, and 1 B plus. Physics was my hardest class, and that’s the class I got a B in. Personally, I could care less about my GPA; I cared back in the day, but now, this is a terminal degree. I don’t care, I just want to get it and have it and see that degree in my hands.
Besides the things you learn about in CRNA school, do you have another source of reliable information that you go to?
- I have a friend who’s a little older than me, and he is currently a CRNA. Whenever I need advice or just some insight, I would go to him when he’s free.
To you, what is the difference between CRNA’s and anesthesiologists?
- Besides the difference of years spent in school, what I know personally is that CRNA’s provide sedations, anesthesia, and pain relief for patients undergoing surgical procedures. A common misconception is that CRNA’s practice under the direct supervision of someone, and in some settings that is true. But throughout the US, CRNA’s can practice independently in a variety of settings; whether that’d be in a large medical center or even a doctor’s office.
Probably the most important question, why do you want to be a CRNA as opposed to an anesthesiologist?
- Time difference and money investment would be one of the main reasons. With CRNA’s, you go through 4 years of undergrad, then two years as a nurse gaining experiencing; making about $60,000-$80,000 a year depending on where you work. Then you sacrifice two years to get your master’s. During those two years you are a full time student and you can’t work as a nurse. So save up if you want to go to CRNA and not have to take up a loan. That being said you, can work as a server, bartender, babysitter, uber driver; whatever makes you fast money so you have some sort of income. After that you can get a job right away as a CRNA, making an average of $140,000 a year. An anesthesiologist would have to go through 4 years of undergrad, go to 4 years of medical school, then do 4 years in residency making less than what a registered nurse would. Finally you become an anesthesiologist after 12 years, and even though you make up to $300,000 a year, that extra four years to me isn’t work it.
What advice would you give to nursing students interested in CRNA school?
- Live it up. I say this with the most utmost respect to those in nursing school right now, but I’m being completely honest. When I personally graduated from nursing school, I didn’t know a thing about real, true floor nursing. I knew book things, but I learn the most on the job, honestly. You can’t prepare yourself for CRNA school, you can’t go pick up a textbook and start reading it. You just can’t. Enjoy being a nurse, enjoy learning how to be a nurse.