Pain management, these two words may relinquish someone’s fears when they are told by their doctors that they will be getting surgery. At first, most think the worst such as, what if I die, I don’t want to get cut open, but when they are told they will be prescribed medication, after the procedure which helps put their mind at ease because of the comfort a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists gives. The personal responsibility of comforting patients and pain management after the surgery is the Nurse Anesthetists job.
This person is more than just being the one who manages pain before surgery. They meet and counsel patients prior to surgery, offer counseling, and let them know they will be with them throughout their care. This individual has to have strong people skills to help them through one of the scariest times in their life. The study is hard, requiring years of preparation. A Certified Nurse Anesthetist offers one the ability to demonstrate one’s skills and knowledge, stable salary, and job security.
Being a certified nurse is a big responsibility, which is why it takes the amount of schooling and practice in order to obtain the amount of skills and knowledge that they need to know in order to be licensed. It is a total of seven years to get to the highest point in the nursing field. It takes a four year degree to get a BSN, or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. In addition, you need 2,500 hours of clinical experience or practice in a real world scenario(1). In this field most of the decisions you have to make come from your knowledge and what you know.
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Some college courses required for the degree include anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, nutrition, and psychology, along with other social and behavioral sciences. You must have a license to practice in the United States and that must be approved and pass by the National Council Licensure Examination. After graduating from the masters program, Nurse Anesthetists must be certified by a national certifying body like the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists( Kristin B. Mallegg, Joseph Palmisano,and Gale Cengage, 193-195).
CRNAs are some of the highest paid RNs in the field, depending on the work setting and state. Typically the salary in New Jersey to go into this field starts off as $68.17 an hour, while the annual wage is $184,310. They usually work clock shift if they decide to be employed by a hospital, where as if they were to be employed by a physician’s office they would be full time and work during normal business hours. There are different annual salaries in different types of industries, for example outpatient centers are around $181,800, the federal executive branch would be $162,520.
Currently the highest paying for this field is the outpatient centers and speciality hospitals. There are so many job opportunities for entering the CRNA field: the top 3 employing jobs currently are offices of Physicians with 21,460 jobs, general medical and surgical hospitals with 11,850 jobs, and lastly outpatient care centers with 1,820 jobs. Being a Certified Nurse Anesthetists is a good job to get secure in. For starters, more than 50,000 Anesthetists practice in the United States and approximately 40% of them are men.
They are well paid and highly respected in the medical field and play such a vital role in a patient’s life. In an article it states that they provide the majority of anesthesia care in the U.S countries with lower income populations. And currently the jobs in this field will increase at a rate of 22% through the year 2022(1). The reason for the rate increasing in the field is due to the healthcare legislation, the emphasis on preventive care, and the number of people living longer today than in previous generations. You can find a job in the CRNA field usually anywhere, as they are needed all over the country.
Just like every other job, you need to have some kind of skills to manage your job. Anesthetist has to be able to monitor the patient, have reading comprehension, active listening, science skills, math skills, be able to read and write all the time, and have different learning strategies. (Anesthetist skills) All of these coincide with being a good anesthesia. You have to monitor the patient’s blood pressure, temperature, heart rate etc. and be able to write all of it down at the same time. Also, you need science and math skills so you can determine how much anesthesia you will need for every patient. Each patient is different and you must dictate the correct amount for each one. Active listening is needed so that you can listen to the surgeon so that in any situation you will be ready to make any adjustments that may arise. Different learning strategies are a big part of this field because you may need to learn new ways to produce anesthesia or even teach it to someone else.
According to 10 Facts and Statistics about Nurse Anesthetists and CRNAs, there are approximately 44,000 nurse anesthetists including CRNAs in the United States alone. 59% are female while 41% are male. Sex does not matter in this career. Each and every day, people are in need of surgery, big or small, and nurse anesthetists need to be there to make them comfortable. They check blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and make sure everything is set for surgery. You may not see the importance of this career, but these people make sure the patient stays unconscious during the surgery. They are there to keep the patient out of pain and comfortable.
However, just like anything in life, there are downfalls of working in this field. The duties they have on a daily routine can start to take a toll of a person physically. In this field there were about 35,000 back and other musculoskeletal injuries within the CRNA experience that have been reported(Snyder,Edgar). Not only does your body endure some physical pain, but some nurses experience verbal abuse at work which may have a long term effect on some employees. Being a CRNA is a huge responsibility, if you do not deal with your patient accordingly, their family or they can sue you, so it is very important to be insured.
Also, another con with this job is depending on what industry you decide to go into hours can be long and dreading. For example surgeries are typically not 15 minutes, each one lasts for hours and most likely does not go as scheduled. It can also be a very harsh workplace, in a 2014 survey, 3 of 4 reported experiencing violence on the job(Snyder,Edgar). Violence is one of the top concerns in the workplace for nurses especially working during emergencies or psychology departments. It is also said that being on the job can be boring because you do not exactly play an active role during these surgery procedures but you still need to be present to monitor the patient you are assigned to which means you end up sitting through surgeries that can many times be extremely long. You also need to be present after the surgery is done in order to monitor them for their recovery and needs.
Lastly, this field of work is very competitive, you have to impress your employer and always be on top of your job. There is always someone waiting to take your position, so therefore you have to be on to of your game and fight each day to prove you are the best for the job. You have to really have a passion for being a nurse anesthesiologist, yes, the pay is very pleasing but long hours that can most likely be boring and even the violence that you are most likely going to encounter can be hard to deal with.
Every job consists of harsh times, long hours and painful encounters. Since hospitals are open 24/7, anesthetist can work up to 50 hour weeks. An Anesthetist can work eight hours one day and 16 hours the next day, it all depends on the amount of anesthetist in that hospital. If there’s only two working one night and many casualties come in, they both have to work overtime to make sure every patient is treated. Whereas, if there are five or more at a time, time efficiency will not be a factor because there will be more of them working at a time. All in all, the amount of hours logged, depend on the amount of workers in the department that day and the amount of surgeries.
This job is about helping people. Helping patients stay comfortable while in surgery. Also, making sure they are pain free after the surgery is over is a must but there will be slight pain after checking out as the medicine starts to wear off. Nurse Anesthetist have many known problems to face at hand. Their patient may wake up during surgery due to them not having a high tolerance of the anesthesia. In this case, the nurse anesthetist will have to calm the patient down and quickly put them back to sleep. In two out of 1,000 cases, a patient has become aware of what is going on.
Waking up during surgery a patient ay remember this after the surgery is over. You should always ask the patient if they have any problems being under anesthesia so that you know ahead of time before procedure. If they do not, you are good to go. If they say that they have, be sure to monitor them very closely while in surgery so that they do not wake up. In any case that they do become aware, this could be traumatic for them. The patient could possibly remember what they saw, felt or even heard while they were conscious on the operating table. This does happen, but not often.
Every career has its good and bad times. This job does too. Some days will be good and everything will go smoothly and other days, a patient may wake up during surgery or even stay unconscious afterwards. These things happen. There are ways to deal with every outcome whether it be a good or bad outcome. It is not easy to do this job. Everything you do matters and you have to stay focused.
In conclusion, being a CRNA comes with accountability and a great deal of responsibility. They play a big role in the medical field so that’s why the occupation is so well respected . A certified nurse anesthetist offers one the ability to demonstrate one’s skills and knowledge , a stable salary, and job security. The pay with being a nurse anesthetist becomes worth it if you enjoy the job, very general, but it’s great field to get into because you can typically find a job anywhere because of the schooling and knowledge you have from this field.
It opens great opportunities for individuals and allows whom ever that decides to be a CRNA to most likely always have a job with a good benefits no matter what your position is. There are cons to entering the field ,but that is with any job unfortunately. As long as you love and are passionate about what you do it makes getting up for work easier. The seven years of school makes up for it in the long run when you are fresh of a college or university making 6 figures. Being a nurse was not always a dream occupation, but it is a solid career that could have you financially stable early.
