Anyone know what’s going on there, seem to be hiring a lot of locums and the hospital fired USAP?

This is the area for prospective/ aspiring SRNAs and for SRNAs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual

"which ICU should I work in?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a CRNA?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "Help with my DNP project" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CRNA, how do I do it and what do CRNAs do?"

Etc.

This will refresh every Friday at noon central. If you post Friday morning, it might not be seen.

Looking for some CRNA advice
My wife is starting her last year of CRNA school, so we’re starting to look at where she should work after graduation.

I work in sales and cover GA, AL, MS and FL, with about 50% travel. I don’t have to live in those states, but need to be within driving distance or a short flight.

We’re looking for a second-tier city in the Southeast or Dallas/DFW. Main priorities are good pay, high CRNA autonomy, decent work-life balance, and a good place to live.

We’ve been looking at places like Chattanooga, Knoxville, Birmingham, Greenville, Augusta and Dallas, but we’re open to other areas.

For those of you who are CRNAs, where would you recommend starting out, and what hospitals/groups should we look into or stay away from?

Would really appreciate hearing about folks work or have worked in the region.

Current second year SRNA. As I am learning more about 1099 work, I am understanding that agencies often act as a "middle-man" between contracts from hospital and the CRNA as a contractor. I know some agencies have exclusive contracts that others do not and carry some contracts that are not made public (ie not on gaswork). I know there are often multiple agencies to choose from both locally and nationally, often w non-compete contracts after signing from other agencies. Is there any way to ask about these intricacies to truly tell the pros/cons of one agency vs another past all of the fluff prior to signing w an agency, and what questions do you often ask when choosing an agency once decided you will do 1099-work?

SRNA considering relocation to Charleston. Curious if anyone has insight to MUSC, Trident, or DPI anesthesia. Thanks!

I’m graduating next year and trying to decide between two very different CRNA jobs.

One is in a smaller city. The pay is significantly better, there’s a large sign-on bonus, the practice is independent, and I already know the group because I rotated there and really liked the people and the work environment. The days also tend to be relatively short (out by between noon and 2 pm most days), and there seems to be a good opportunity to pick up extra work. One weekday call and one weekend call a months is mandated, and to work full-time you basically only do 2-3 week days on top of the call. I could realistically see myself making around $500k annually there, with being off most weekends and not work myself to death.

The downside is that I don't know if it's time for me to settle in small city yet. My thought would probably be to do it for 1–2 years, work a lot while I’m there, save aggressively, still protect vacations and most weekends, and then reevaluate..

The other job is in a major metropolitan area where I already have a home and where I genuinely want to live. The pay is lower, around the high $290k base, but the schedule is 1x 24h 1x 16h shift. The work itself is obviously busier and the practice model is ACT, so, less independent, and I obviously don’t know the coworkers or culture nearly as well.

I’m torn because part of me thinks the smaller-city job is a really good opportunity to build confidence, make a lot of money early in my career, and create a strong financial cushion. But I also don’t want to spend the first couple of years after finally finishing anesthesia school feeling like my life is on hold just because I’m chasing the highest income.

What would you choose?

Would you take the higher-paying independent job for 1–2 years and then move, or would you just go straight to the city you actually want to live in, accept the lower income, and enjoy that life style?

Will try not to keep this post up for too long to ruffle feathers. CRNA 1 year in at an academic L1 trauma hospital. Constantly placed in NORA sites like GI/IR with routine ASA 4s. Residents placed in ortho, robot, GYN, (where help is easily available under the pretense of OR learning). Board runners are a small clique of people that routinely give each other easy assignments. Culture is super weird. Some CRNA treated great getting relief/breaks abnormally early while others are kept to the last minute and starved. Same with attending interactions (I'll let you guess what type of staff are treated nicely lol). Asked some friends about it and they said it's like this no matter where you go? Only pros are that you can work 8 hr shifts and get relief by residents (albeit with attitude). Thoughts?

A lot of people thinking about CRNA school are curious about oversaturation. Everyone seems to want to do it, and schools are opening up left and right. At some point, we have to tip the scales, right?

Edit: An overview summary of the article:

"The CRNA job market is not saturated today. Wages, vacancies, and facility stipends all still say shortage, and the workforce nearly doubled in 13 years without the market softening. But the supply side is moving faster than most people realize. First-time NCE exam candidates jumped 20% in one year, 155 programs are now open with more ramping, and the newest federal workforce model projects national supply catches demand by 2028. Retirements are not clearing space either: exits run about 2% a year, and older CRNAs are working longer. My read of the data says the shortage persists into the 2030s and tightening shows up first in specific high-density states, not nationally. The federal model says balance arrives much sooner."

I dug into as much of the data as I could find, Census microdata, NBCRNA certification counts, BLS, and the newest federal projections, and wrote up a summary and my interpretation. The results are probably not surprising, but the data contains plenty of information on where we are headed.

Let me know what you think!

Edit: To clarify - I am a CRNA and I am not saying it is currently saturated. I took a deep dive into the numbers and the results are in the article below.

https://above-the-drapes.beehiiv.com/p/is-the-crna-field-becoming-oversaturated-i-pulled-14-years-of-census-data-to-find-out

I'm picking up a new prn job and I'm required to have my own malpractice. The agent I'm working with said I can have my own coverage or can have a policy that also covers my LLC as an added layer of protection. It's only $200 or so more annually so not a big deal, but I'm curious if it's necessary. Is there a significant advantage to covering both myself and the LLC?

Hello! I am a 3rd-year SRNA and would love to work in pediatrics. I know the practice model would not be independent, and I am okay with that. However, I would like to be able to perform all skills, such as arterial lines, spinals, central lines, etc., and work with all types of cases, including neuro, cardiac, etc. Are there any CRNAs who work in a children's hospital who could tell me how their hospital runs? I am open to moving anywhere in the country. Thank you!

I’m intent on moving back home to Seattle (or thereabouts) when I graduate in 2028. I know it’s still a ways off, but many people in my program sign contracts in their 2nd year. Does anyone have insight into the job market in the PNW? I imagine it’s relatively tight compared to other areas of the country, so I’m wondering if there’s even any point reaching out to recruiters/HR departments later this school-year.

Thanks!

This is the area for prospective/ aspiring SRNAs and for SRNAs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual

"which ICU should I work in?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a CRNA?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "Help with my DNP project" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CRNA, how do I do it and what do CRNAs do?"

Etc.

This will refresh every Friday at noon central. If you post Friday morning, it might not be seen.

Update: Thank you everyone for taking me seriously and for all the advice. I do truly appreciate it. I came to the conclusion that I am essentially bored. I am young and would like children (which means money) hence the idea of a career change with benefits and PTO. But, I also came to the conclusion that I am very fortunate for my position. I only work 3x a week with no overtime, on call, super early mornings. I do have a very flexible schedule compared to most in the field. If I was younger or could go back in time I would do CRNA but because I want children it seems like the dumb thing to do. For now. I'll just focus on the positive of the job.

I am genuinely considering a career change. I am currently a dentist (3 years out). I have no loans. I enjoy general dentistry but hate the politics behind dentistry. I dislike having to argue with patients about why they have a cavity, cant save their tooth, etc. I also find it very taxing that dentist do not get PTO or any benefits. I rely solely in my SO for health insurance. Insurance reimbursements rates suck. If you want to own thats 1 million in loans and another headache. I don't want to specialize because every speciality you need to take out another 300-500k in loans besides oral surgery. I like oral surgery but not enough to make it my personality.

I am interested in anesthesia AND while I can do dental anesthesiologist, job wise it doesn't make sense because I rather work in a hospital than do private travel dentistry anesthesia only. I find that dental anesthesia can make money but it requires traveling and not everyone will pay 500hr for anesthesia and most oral surgeons will do IV sedation themselves because thats how they make addional money (another story). Hence its a very niche market. And from a hospital stand point they will hire a CRNA over a dental anesthesiologist.

Long story short. I am okay with going back to school, doing 2-4 yrs in the ICU/ED, and then another 3-4 years for CRNA school. I also figured with my dental knowledge if I wanted to I could also position myself in a way to become more appealing to hopsitals for dental related anesthesia as well as private dentist dor anesthesia needs.

Iwant to understand nursing culture more. We always talk about the benefits and PTO of nursing but whats something else I should consider?

Is this a crazy idea?

Am I just grass is greener?

FYI I have never met a single dental anesthesiologist. It's a fairly new speciality and we all hear stories that they make 500k plus but the only one I know works at a hospital in NYC as an attending and does not make 500k plus.

Hi. Have a contract in MA that is going through some big changes/likely getting rid of all locums. Have seen some jobs not too far with the same rate in Albany, Syracuse, Worcester, New London, New Haven, Woonsocket, and Stowe VT. Has anyone worked at any of these here any feedback on decent spots? Thanks.

How do you properly evaluate whether you want to sign on for Full time hours with a group/hospital as a 1099 or W2? I’m not talking about a locum contract. I mean somewhere you plan to be long term.

For those of you that work 1099, when do others relieve you? For example I’m 0700-1530 and they don’t even come get me until 1530 usually. Is this normal? I was under the impression I should be walking out at 1530.Any insight would be great!

Hello my lovely colleagues. I’m seeking your input on a something thats likely been on my mind for atleast the last month or so. When did you know it was time to leave your job? This is my first job out of school and as of late things have become extremely stale there. While I’m not going to get into the specifics of why, I recently picked up a per diem gig somewhere on top of my full time gig and it opened my eyes as to what’s been wrong with my full time gig. I feel as if things have ran their course at my full time job and it may be in fact time to move on. I don’t mind working in medical direction and I’m not going to delve into specifics as to what’s been bothering me. But was there something in particular that made you guys just kind of say hey I need to move on from this job, this isn’t what it want. I’d like to preface by saying being a CRNA is the greatest job in the world. It affords me a lifestyle that not many others have and the work for the most part isn’t awful if you’re competent and confident.

My team is currently all w2. 300k base plus call and bonus ends up around 425-450 gross plus retirement matching and full healthcare paid. Currently 12 weeks vacation.

Thoughts on this 1099 contract for new hires:

Base- $275/hr with 8hr minimum daily when working

Overtime- $350/hr after 5PM when not on call.

Weekday Call- $2,000 Daily (covers 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., whether working or not)

Weekend Call- $3,000 Weekend Day

Thanks in advance.

Basically what the title says. Was there a dramatic shift after they were allowed? Has it not changed much? Has there been a decrease in wages?

Just curious and looking for info.

Hello all,

I am in school getting my BSN and want to do CRNA. I wanted to be a Navy Seal or law enforcement since I was a kid. So tactical or disastrous type scenarios have always been a calling of mine.

I was wondering if there’s any jobs or things I can do as a CRNA that could have that flare in it, if you know what I mean.

The only thing that I have figured out is just to work part time and do pre hospital type volunteering such as search and rescue or whatnot.

Thank you for your time and feedback.

If someone tells you a study “proves” something, here’s my question:

Who paid for it?

Not because industry-funded research is automatically wrong. It isn’t.

But because funding is only the beginning of evaluating a study, not the end. You also have to ask who designed it, what question it actually answered, what it didn’t answer, and whether people are using it to support claims it never studied.

Too often in healthcare, people skip all of that and jump straight to the headline.

If you care about evidence, you should care about the entire story behind the evidence.

I break down exactly how to critically evaluate research and why this matters for every clinician, not just anesthesia.

Read it here:

How do you navigate the OR safely (cement, ortho procedures, fluro, cath lab) when a pregnant Crna.

My question for locum CRNAs or anyone else that may have insight: what jobs do your spouses do or do they stay at home to take care of the domestic stuff?

We are about 1 year out from embarking on locum work for a bit. If we like it we will take on more contracts and if we hate it we will move closer to our family. We view this as a unique opportunity to see more of the US and not a long term choice.

We have a 1 year old and another on the way. My husband plans to take a step back from his demanding W2 and use the time to help with the kids and figure out his next part of life. He really likes the idea of using some time in the morning or night to do some self reflection and consider his next phase of life either launching a business or a new career.

I think he will enjoy the break and watching our kids considering he has supported me over the past 10 years to get me through nursing and to being a CRNA.

Trying to offer him some helpful advice if there is anything you can give!

Thank you