Recently I have been very busy with the new students operating room rotations.  We are now coming to the place I really look forward to in the development of the SRNA’s clinical skills and awareness.  This new class has been in the OR’s now for a little over 6 months and are starting to really shine.  Now is the time to back off as clinical instructors and let the little fledglings fly a bit and see what its like to take care of patients with less direction and more watchful care from the instructors.  I have been really pleased to see how far the students have come in their skills and judgment of basic anesthesia care.  My greatest pleasure now is in seeing the developing SRNA’s taking the reigns and allowing me to back off to more of a watchful position.  Off course I am always there to rescue or to discuss different management systems for the cases we do.  All in all I think that as instructors of clinical anesthesia we are very hands on.  Now is the time to back off a bit.

The clinical days with the students amount to four days a week and my schedule lines up pretty well with theirs for the most part.  I choose it this way.  But I did have a Monday or two over the last couple of months where potential students have shown up for “Shadow Days”.  These days are another of the great pleasures I have being associated with the Keck School of Medicine in the Anesthesia department.  Mostly I just take care of the patients while the shadow person observes.  We discuss the anesthesia care and the surgical cases.  What I do is to lead the candidate into a discussion of what it takes to be a nurse anesthetist, the background and individual talent that is needed to succeed in any rigorous anesthesia program.  We also discuss the various program options that are available now including the DNAP and the DNAP degrees that are just around the corner.  More on that in another post to come.

After our day in the OR I always ask the participant to write back to thank the administration and to submit a little description of their experience in the operating room to me.  This helps me get better at seeing what the candidate has identified as important to them and clues me into a better tailoring of the experience for those that are scheduled to come to the OR next.  This has been a work in progress.  Frankly, the Shadow Program has been extremely successful in introducing new candidates to USC and helping the faculty here to get to know the persons that are planning on applying to the program in the future.  I think it saves a lot of time for the candidates preventing wasted effort for the potential students.  By receiving a couple key clues they are able to better prepare, study and present their application in the best light.

What I tell the candidates is based on the individual but in general there are a couple of tips that any wise potential nurse anesthesia student will take to heart.  I always recommend studying for the CCRN exam prior to application as this demonstrates a commitment to excellence and is a land mark indicator for a baseline degree of knowledge.  The achievement of the CCRN certification is a laudable achievement and comes highly recommended.  If a candidate goes through an application process and is not accepted for what ever reason one of the things that is told to that individual is that if they wish to apply again the CCRN certification will help them to be more successful with the next interview process.  Enough said about the CCRN certification.  You can check the requirements to sit for this exam with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

One of the other tips I give out is to get the book, “Watchful Care” by Marianne Bankert.  This book chronicles the history and nurse anesthesia in America and is a great inspiration for nurses wanting to go into the field of anesthesia.  This is important background information that is critical to know if you want to sound like a candidate that has done their homework and knows what they are getting into.  Another book I highly recommend is Paul Marino’s great text, “The ICU Book“.  I find that too many candidates coming in to either shadow or to interview do not have enough experience or the base knowledge that will ensure their success in a rigorous nurse anesthesia program.  The information in Paul Marino’s book is fundamental prerequisite knowledge.  There is just too much to learn about anesthesia while in graduate education to try and catch up with the basics that are contained in The ICU Book.  A word to the wise should be sufficient!  As a guide for studying for the CCRN exam, the Core Curriculum for critical care is highly recommended as well.

OK, enough for now.  What follows are a couple notes form recent Shadow days.

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