Hi my name is Catherine and I am a first year SRNA. I’m
going to take you along with me as I go through the next three years of CRNA
school. For a little bit of background, I have been a nurse for eight years at
a Level I trauma center in upstate NY. I spent half of my time in the PACU and
then the other half of my time in the SICU. I applied to CRNA school in
September of last year and got a call to come in for an interview in October.
The interview process itself was intense and lasted six hours. It consisted of
a test (like the CCRN), one-on-one interviews with the faculty, a panel
interview with the professors, and a tour of the facilities. I received a call
two weeks later from the program, where they offered me a spot in the class of
2026. I happily accepted the offer and then continued to work per diem until

classes started in May 2023. I scoured the internet before starting classes to see
what I should ideally be doing in this waiting period from when I found out I
got accepted, to when the program started. I found a lot of different answers
on the web (as one usually does) but the most frequent answer I found was to
relax and try to spend as much time as possible with friends and family before
starting the program. One of my favorite things to do is travel, so I made it a
priority to do a lot of traveling in the months leading up to the start of the
program. I knew that once I started, it would probably be three years before I
could travel internationally again. I traveled to Bali in March, flew back to
the U.S. for my friend’s wedding in Reno, Nevada, then traveled to Thailand in
April, and was able to squeeze in a visit to see my friend in Austin, Texas
before school started. I’m looking forward to these next three years and would love for you to join me on this wild ride!