I try to keep most of my posts positive and avoid the "politics" of being in anesthesia school. After a recent discussion with a classmate of mine, I felt compelled to share an excerpt from John Marble, CRNA's book entitled What I Was Not Necessarily Taught in Anesthesia School.
Some of you who are currently in school or even if you've been a practicing CRNA for years, you can probably relate:
"..you too may be misjudged by an instructor. Though you may have remarkable cognitive and/or clinical ability, you will be asked to function in an environment that you've never seen how to act within. No one cares that you may have been the best ICU nurse on a thirty bed unit. What they do care about is whether or not you are going to display the need to be prompted in order to sense something that you've never been exposed to; whether ot not it's interpreting something you've never seen, doing something you've never done, or recognizing a number that you have no idea what it means."
"..You'll be judged primarily from the start on something that you're assured to initially fail at due to a lack of being properly prepared by both the facility in which you used to work and a comprehensive, but nonspecific didactic course load. Consequently and sadly, some will jump on the 'nostalgia bandwagon' with a chain-smoking classmate while reminiscing just outside the cafeteria doors about how they and their classmates were 'never' like that, and would have been kicked out of school on the very first day if they ever were; all while secretly knowing that you are within earshot, but acting as if they don't."
"Just remember that they were once there too and were probably worse than you. This is their payback for having to endure the same confidence teardown that they are currently giving you and your classmates. You'll have more time to win them over. Just don't hug them before you leave when your time at their institution is up, or your clothes will end up smelling like an ash tray."
For more information on John's book visit: http://www.whatiwasnottaught.com/book.html
