Life as a CRNA

I’ve always found that making a list of professional objectives I wanted to complete during the year to be a great way to remain focused and goal-oriented. Too often, I’ve seen colleagues, both new and old, get burned out and believe me, it’s really easy to get yourself in a rut in anesthesia. That’s why I’ve always found it important to think about what kinds of goals one wants to achieve in order to keep yourself fresh and motivated. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in an emotional pit questioning why you’re even practicing anesthesia.

If you think that by leaving bedside nursing for anesthesia is the cure for all your professional problems, let me be the first to tell you that that is not the case. I know a lot of people who “quit” once they’ve become CRNAs. What I mean by that is they’ve given up on having any kind of ambition, which I think is really unfortunate. There’s something about the process of going through graduate school that slowly erodes away one’s sense of motivation.

I haven’t quite put my finger on it. I think as a bedside nurse, I had this valorized idea of what it meant to be a CRNA and I busted my ass to fulfill that idea. However, over the course of 2 very short, but very long years, that process really ground me down. It’s not that school was difficult. I think it was the constant mind games I felt I had to play. It’s like being on a job interview ALL THE TIME, but despite being praised for being your best self, you come across individuals (both CRNAs and MDs alike) who try to tear you down whether knowingly or not.

There’s only so many times one can take being berated on why tape should be applied to an induced patient’s eyes vertically as opposed to horizontally or always mask ventilate with the straps before you want to gouge your preceptor’s eyes out. However, like so many of my other posts, I’m digressing. The point of what I’m trying to say is, school is a major drag and it can suck the life out of you, particularly when it comes to your professional goals and ambitions…which is why I think it’s important to develop a list of objectives that you want to pursue; otherwise, you’ll find yourself aimlessly going to work and letting time fly by without ever knowing what happened to it…

At the end of every year, I like to review the objectives I pursued and achieved from the prior year and then use that a springboard for goals I’d like to pursue for the subsequent year

2016 Objectives

• Launched orientation website for new-hire CRNAs/SRNAs.
• Volunteered to precept students/new hire CRNAs/paramedic students/shadowing opportunities for RNs
• Managed CRNA section on the department’s intranet
• Collaborated with colleagues with publishing article for journal
• Super user of an electronic health record system at a hospital
• Participating in health panel discussion regarding the diversity of career options in healthcare for undergraduate students
• Collaborating with anesthesiologist with developing surgeon preference list at each clinical site
• Seeking out opportunities to develop clinical skills (e.g., regional blocks and epidurals)
• Start a blog on preparing for school, what school was like, and what life has been like since becoming a CRNA

It was a busy 2016 for me, which I have to say I’ve been very pleased about. There are certainly some overlapping goals from 2016 with 2017. Between balancing my professional objectives and working full time at an academic medical center and part time in private practice, my hands will be full for 2017 as well.

2017 Objectives

• Managing orientation website and finding ways to streamline orientation experience for new grad CRNAs, staff, and SRNAs
• Continue collaboration with anesthesiologist with development of surgeon preference list at each clinical site; develop eBook of preferences for smartphone access
• Precept new-hire CRNAs, SRNAs, paramedics and providing RNs with shadowing opportunities
• Seeking out opportunities to develop clinical skills (e.g., regional blocks and epidurals)
• Developing an eBook orientation manual for staff to use for site-specific information
• Finding opportunities to teach courses/classes to nurses (e.g., airway management)
• Publish an article
• Continue work on LifeAsACRNA