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There is one photo Marc still has from his ICU days. His preceptor on one side of the bed, him on the other, both turning a patient, and a friend walks in and snaps his face mid-turn. His back screaming, in that gray sweater he wore all the time. That is the exact second he knew he was done with bedside. That is where this one starts.

What CRNA school actually costs has nothing to do with tuition. For Shantall it was losing her sense of self, coming out the other side with no direction after aiming her whole life at one goal, and a marriage she and Adam had to relearn after three years of distance. For Marc it was friendships, holidays, sleep, and a marriage only nine months old when they packed up and left everything they knew. We also split the two roads, why Shantall took the military route, what it covered, and the one thing it costs you that the traditional route does not, your freedom.

If you are weighing this path, this is the honest version of the receipt.

QUESTIONS WE GET INTO THIS EPISODE

00:00 What finally made you leave ICU nursing for good?

09:00 What does CRNA school actually cost you beyond the tuition and debt?

11:00 Can CRNA school change your marriage, even when nothing is wrong?

14:00 Why does anesthesia school break your confidence down before it builds you back up?

17:00 What keeps CRNA students from quitting when it gets dark?

21:00 Military vs civilian CRNA program: what does the military route really trade for the debt it saves you?

New episodes every other Tuesday. Everything we make lives at clockoutandconnect.com, free CRNA tools, the newsletter, all of it.

Chapters :

00:00 The photo that made Marc leave the ICU

03:00 The physical toll of bedside nobody talks about

06:00 Shantall's slow burnout out of the unit

08:00 Understaffed, unsafe, and done

09:00 What CRNA school actually cost us

11:00 How it changed Shantall's marriage

13:00 Marc's list: friendships, holidays, sleep, marriage

14:00 Losing your confidence, broken down to be rebuilt

17:00 What kept us from quitting

20:00 The military motivator: no going back to bedside

21:00 Military vs the traditional route: what each one trades

26:00 Moonlighting, leadership, and the fine print

27:00 Off the Record: what we'd tell a brand new CRNA

32:00 Next time: what it cost the people beside us

✨ Connect with us:

📧 Email: [email protected]
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

Send us Fan Mail

One of us was born in the Dominican Republic and joined the Army at 17. The other was born in Jamaica and started helping care for his grandmother after her stroke at eight years old. We met years later in an El Paso operating room, one of us the student, one of us the preceptor. This is the first time we walk through both paths, in order, from the very beginning.

If you have ever wondered how to become a CRNA, this is two honest versions of the answer, one through the Army, one through the traditional college route, and neither was a straight line. We talk about standing in a cement box in Iraq at 18. Getting pulled out of anesthesia school into the COVID ICU in El Paso, coding two and three patients at once. A grandmother's stroke that quietly turned a kid into a caregiver.

This is also why we started the podcast. We kept having these conversations at the dinner table and finally hit record. If you have ever wondered what actually happens on the other side of that OR door, pull up a chair.

QUESTIONS WE GET INTO THIS EPISODE

11:20 Can you go straight from a new ICU nurse job to becoming a CRNA?

13:20 How do you become a CRNA through the Army, and why choose the military route?

16:45 What happens if you get pulled out of anesthesia school (the COVID ICU story)?

24:20 How do you choose between CRNA and nurse practitioner?

30:20 How many years of ICU experience do you actually need before CRNA school?

43:50 Is becoming a CRNA worth it, and would you do it all over again?

New episodes every other Tuesday. Everything we make lives at clockoutandconnect.com, free CRNA tools, the newsletter, all of it.

Chapters :

0:00 Cold open: Would you do it again?

0:20 Welcome to Clock Out & Connect

1:00 Shantall: Dominican Republic to the Army at 17

2:40 Deployed to Iraq

8:10 Meeting Adam, leaving the Army, and finding nursing

11:20 ICU burnout and discovering CRNA

13:20 Choosing the military route

15:50 Fort Sam to Fort Bliss: anesthesia school begins

17:00 COVID: pulled from school into the COVID ICU

19:20 Hawaii, becoming a mom, moving home to Florida

21:20 Marc: Jamaica to New York to Florida

24:20 His grandmother's stroke and choosing nursing

29:00 The step-down floor and getting into the ICU

31:40 University of Maryland and the leap with Becky

34:50 El Paso: the job that brought him there

37:00 The small-world connection and how they met

40:40 Being a good preceptor

42:20 Why they started the podcast

43:50 Would you do it again?

47:50 Test anxiety and getting help

48:50 What's coming this season

50:20 Off the Record

✨ Connect with us:

📧 Email: [email protected]
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.