Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 7/24/2008

Question
I'm currently an RN student about to graduate this upcoming year. Withing a year or after graduation i play to finish obtaining my BSN and hopefully follow up with more education for CRNA. i know theres a huge difference with education, salary, and resposibilities between crna and anesthesiology, but for a self driven bored with school student, i ask if that DR. before my name on an ID satisfy me?? besides the self driven determination i just wonder if there is a good way to transition from crna to anesthesiology? pre-med? how long and what more must i do to fit it into my classes? Im going to be an RN at the age of 20 and assuming all goes well i'll be 25 at the most when i grad from crna school. I just need advice and answers to which path to take and why.

Answer
I can't tell you which path to follow and unfortunately I don't know much about the training requirements for CRNAs. There is no transition from CRNA to MDA, you need to go to medical school, etc., so you should choose one or the other soas not to lose too much time.


Ronald Levy, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston