4 applications--> 2 interviews --> 1 acceptance
Hi everyone,
I wanted to post on here because I am starting CRNA school this summer and I remember constantly searching through this reddit forum back when I was in the application process. I applied to 4 schools, got interviews for 2, rejected for 1 and accepted to my last interview.
I remember how stressful the application process for me. Working full time, studying for the CCRN and other certifications, doing leadership activities, balancing volunteer work and then on top of all that studying all the clinical and emotional intelligence questions for the interview.
It can be a lot. And I remember when I got my first rejection. It felt heavy. But, I learned a lot from the first interview. And what I learned from the first interview is actually what got me my acceptance in the second interview. So I just wanted to share on here my 2 cents that once you get that interview invite, focus all your energy on just interview prep (all the way from clinical questions to emotional interview questions).
A tip for clinical questions that really helped me is to say the bare minimum (to avoid getting yourself in a deep hole) and always know the "why" and "how" behind everything. And a great way to do that, is to practice in your daily life what you're doing and why you're doing it mentally. You're going into the patient's room, you ask them their name and date of birth. Why are you doing that? What information are you trying to get? Why do you pre oxygenate the patient? Why do you titrate this medication up or down? Why do you watch out for bradycardia with precedex? How does it effect your heart rate?
Because a lot of the information is in your head already but there is some sort of mental block that people have that prevents them from getting that information out of their head and out.
Anyways, I just wanted to write this post to say what helped me and if anyone has any questions please reach out to me!! You all got this!!!