Midtrimester 6 of 7 CRNA School – CRNA School Review

Moving along towards the light of the end of the tunnel. Trimester 6 of 7 is well underway. Just finished my 2 months in obstetrics and managed to rack up well over 100 spinals and epidurals combined. I really enjoyed OB, initially the challenges of regional anesthesia was unsettling while I acquired the feel for the technique. Fortunately with plenty of practice I found myself doing it faster and my success rate soared until I felt competent to handle anyones back. Like any other thing in anesthesia, time and practice is of the essence.

I am now in the process of preparing for my SEE- exam. It is mandatory in my program and attempts to prepare the student for the environment and questions one would expect when taking boards. For this challenge I decided to go through all of Morgan and Mikail once and Valley sweat book once. I have recently finished Morgan and just started Valley this past weekend (Still have 500 pages to go). Hopefully my score and statistics will show me where I am deficient and direct my subsequent study for boards hopefully by mid to end of May 2012.

In midst of the last class graduation and the numerous schools available in Florida, compounded by a plethora of private messages I have received through this blog and my account at a popular nurse anesthesia forum where I am member I have decided to write a small review of my program.

It is my understanding that there is a vast number of available anesthesia programs in Florida and in the U.S. It can be deduced that some programs are definitely better than others, but one thing is also certain, there exists standards and a commissioned body to oversee that “minimum standards” are accomplished by all these schools. To say one school is best or worse is a personal perspective that are different even among students from the same class or program. Someone might consider their experience in a program marvelous while others detested their experience.

With that said, I can only acknowledge what I know from my program, because I have not been to another school for comparison. Moreover, in my review I will attempt to answer some of the questions I have received in this blog about my program in a bullet format.

• There are 3 permanent staff members (PD included)
• There is a lab with a human-like simulator  (STAN) and 2 anesthesia machines.
• You don’t compete for cases with other schools. We are the only anesthesia provider students in the FH system.
• There are about 7 hospital sites, all from FH we are assigned to.
• There are 20-22 students per year.
• You are given at least 2 months in OB. Plenty if spinals and epidurals during that time.
• All lectures are in the campus (No online).
• Lectures are mostly through the 3 staff members.
• A handful of lectures were from previous students (I don’t think this applies any longer).
• A few lectures are from Anesthesiologist that practice at the clinical sites.
• Pharmacology was introduced by an anesthesiologist entirely during the first trimester.
• Peripheral regional is somewhat limited. Although a specified rotation exists, not all anesthesiologist will let you do them. That is currently being worked on.
• Plenty of opportunities for central lines, Swans and A-lines during your 2 months in Vascular and Hearts.
• No specific trauma rotation. Your trauma cases will be sporadic cases when you are at night.
• Sporadic independent practice. 97% of the time there will be a MDA or CRNA in the room with you. As you progress into your senior year, they are more inclined to leave you alone and let you handle difficult situations.
• A cadaver lab is now being implemented.
• 2 classes have graduated thus far. First pass rate was low (as can be expected from a program that just started) but the second class that graduated is above national average at >90%.
• I will probably graduate with 1100 to 1200 cases.

I’m sure more can be said in respect to the program Im in, and will be happy to answer any further questions directed to me. For now I’m signing off.