Cons of CRNA career

[Anonymous]

Most crna I have spoken seem to enjoy their job . Yeah pay is good but there has to be a catch .Jobs don't pay that much money for no reason .

Do you think the job market will cool down as every ICU nurse I spoken to wants to go down this route . AA being approved in more states , and more CRNA DNP schools being opened I think will drive wages down .

[Anonymous]

Getting into school isn't easy and neither is the schooling itself. I think the market will eventually become over saturated.

[Anonymous]

Well for starters, most CRNAs have a specific personality. They are intense and often controlling people. They also have to deal with proving themselves to surgeons all day long. They are not MDs but want to be called anesthesiologists. It’s a weird group of people.

Second, pay and benefits are being cut everywhere. Over saturation has already started. They have been an overpaid field for a long time now. That’s starting to change.

[Anonymous]

Beware of pushback from professional physician groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well for starters, most CRNAs have a specific personality. They are intense and often controlling people. They also have to deal with proving themselves to surgeons all day long. They are not MDs but want to be called anesthesiologists. It’s a weird group of people.

Second, pay and benefits are being cut everywhere. Over saturation has already started. They have been an overpaid field for a long time now. That’s starting to change.

I know several CNRAs and my child has shadowed with a couple and I don't agree with your first paragraph at all.

Similarly, the postings in my area of NOVA show no signs of salaries being cut.

[Anonymous]

Great, high paying career with good job stability. Challenging to get into CRNA school. Pays more than primary care physician or pediatrician. You also won’t get the most complex cases or women in labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great, high paying career with good job stability. Challenging to get into CRNA school. Pays more than primary care physician or pediatrician. You also won’t get the most complex cases or women in labor.

Yep. My SIL is a CRNA and she absolutely loves it. I think her base is $250Kish and then she clears another $50K in overtime a year (nothing too crazy hours-wise, she could push that up if needed for whatever reason). Signing bonus was also over $100K. That’s in DC proper.

[Anonymous]

-schooling is expensive (these days it's $200K)

-it's shift work which until you've done it is hard to fully appreciate. There's no running out to a kid's school game or program or coming in late or taking a last minute day off. But when you're off, you're fully off. I found that I much prefer the flexibility of a desk job vs the rigidity of shift work. Others feel differently.

-you're always reporting to an MD which can either totally a non-issue or source of stress if the MD is an a$$. It can also get old psychologically to never be fully in charge. Especially when you age and suddenly the MDs are 20 years younger than you are and know less.

[Anonymous]

CRNA here. I’ve been practicing in the DC area for 15 years. I love my job and can’t imagine doing anything else, but it is a tough road to get here and it’s not for everyone. Yes, it’s lucrative (I made over $300k last year; my base is in the mid-200s and I earn OT/shift differentials for nights & weekends). I went to a state school in a medium COL area 15 years ago, and still took out over $150k in student loans (paid them back already, thankfully) — all CRNA programs are full-time and you absolutely cannot work during the program, especially once clinical rotations start and you’re in the hospital from roughly 5:30 am until whenever cases finish. With the DOE potentially capping federal loans for nurses at $100k, it’s going to make it even harder to afford school.

You obviously need to be a bachelor’s degree prepared RN first, and most CRNA programs require at least two years’ ICU nursing experience. Then it’s an additional 2.5-3 years of school (didactic coursework and clinical rotations) for a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree so you can take the licensing exam.

To the posters who said CRNAs are “always reporting to an MD,” that’s simply not true. In many states, CRNAs can practice without physician supervision, and in rural areas, CRNAs are often the sole anesthesia providers. In more populated areas of the country, CRNAs work alongside anesthesiologists in a care team model, but we perform the same functions.

CRNAs provide anesthesia in all settings, both hospital and office-based (like dentists’ offices), as well as labor and delivery! It’s an awesome career, but yes, you must like shift work and be willing to be 100% present when you’re at work.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that the removal of advanced nursing degrees from being defined as a graduate professional program will mean your loan limit will be very low vs actual program cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that the removal of advanced nursing degrees from being defined as a graduate professional program will mean your loan limit will be very low vs actual program cost.

Maybe or maybe the schools will do a better job controlling their costs once there are loan limits. I hate the Trump admin and oppose 99 percent of what they are doing, but I do wonder if there might be a silver lining to this policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that the removal of advanced nursing degrees from being defined as a graduate professional program will mean your loan limit will be very low vs actual program cost.

Maybe or maybe the schools will do a better job controlling their costs once there are loan limits. I hate the Trump admin and oppose 99 percent of what they are doing, but I do wonder if there might be a silver lining to this policy.

Ha! Wishful thinking. These are not academic programs and will continue to charge an arm and a leg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:-schooling is expensive (these days it's $200K)

-it's shift work which until you've done it is hard to fully appreciate. There's no running out to a kid's school game or program or coming in late or taking a last minute day off. But when you're off, you're fully off. I found that I much prefer the flexibility of a desk job vs the rigidity of shift work. Others feel differently.

-you're always reporting to an MD which can either totally a non-issue or source of stress if the MD is an a$$. It can also get old psychologically to never be fully in charge. Especially when you age and suddenly the MDs are 20 years younger than you are and know less.

It’s worse to have to report to surgeons. They don’t respect CRNAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well for starters, most CRNAs have a specific personality. They are intense and often controlling people. They also have to deal with proving themselves to surgeons all day long. They are not MDs but want to be called anesthesiologists. It’s a weird group of people.

Second, pay and benefits are being cut everywhere. Over saturation has already started. They have been an overpaid field for a long time now. That’s starting to change.

This is very accurate. I am a former ICU nurse who went a different route within the surgical realm.

The exception would be if you as a newly minted CRNA are willing to work in a non-saturated area. I hear from friends that the free-standing surgical centers in places like Stockton, CA and Albany, NY still pay really, really well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:-schooling is expensive (these days it's $200K)

-it's shift work which until you've done it is hard to fully appreciate. There's no running out to a kid's school game or program or coming in late or taking a last minute day off. But when you're off, you're fully off. I found that I much prefer the flexibility of a desk job vs the rigidity of shift work. Others feel differently.

-you're always reporting to an MD which can either totally a non-issue or source of stress if the MD is an a$$. It can also get old psychologically to never be fully in charge. Especially when you age and suddenly the MDs are 20 years younger than you are and know less.

Anyone who is viable candidate for CRNA school has been an RN for years already at that point, including a few years of hospital critical care nursing, so the concept of shift work is not novel or jarring.