Columbia University CRNA Program

[niki_m787]

Hello!

Just wondering if anyone has any insider info on Columbia Uni's CRNA program (I've already read everything on the website). . .I'm just wondering if anyone has gone there, going there, or applied there. . .any insider info, impressions, opinions etc would be lovely. .

Thanks!

Niki, Saint John, NB, Canada :nurse:

[turbo29]

My application is almost officially in for summer 2008, just waiting for my LORs to get in. If you are close to the school I know they have open house type things where you can go talk to people from the program (students and faculty). You can find the dates and times for the open houses on their website. I know the Columbia Anesthesiology (for MDs) program is topnotch. Hopefully that spills over into the CRNA program, although I know that just means competition for cases. Whats a little competition?!?! Anyway, good luck in your quest. If I get any insider info I'll PM you.

[Rioplatense]

Hey

I went to the last open house in September. You should've heard everyone on my unit,"You're going where on Sept. 11!?!" It was a fun trip.
The open house was real casual with just the program director, the admissions guy, and two of the faculty. They put on a power point presentation about the program and prerequisits. After that they answered questions from the audience. I got some good information.
Here is what I could glean:
1. They said they had 80 applicants last year, their maximum class size is around 30. Some of those spots are reserved for their BSN-MSN students who are finishing their 1 year ICU experience, so they said they interview 20-25 a year.
2. Their clinical sites are all over the NY, NJ area. The Long Island clinical site is just Cardiothoracic, so you have to round there. They said something about working out a permanent residency at some of the sites, but I wasn't really too concerned about where I'd have to go for clinical, ya know? So I didn't pick up on that.
3. They said that their graduates do all and more of their required cases? I can't remember the term, but you have to have so many different cases in different areas.
4. There are some clinical sites that the anesthesia residents do not round or work at, so they said that its not always an issue to be booted from the OR cause of the MDAs
5. The assistant director and the clinical supervisor, correct me I can't remember their positions, just graduated in 2004. They are getting their DNPs, so it seemed they were young in anesthesia. The program director, who used to be the assistant director, has been in anesthesia a long time.
6. They basically said its Columbia you'd be graduating from and that most of the perks are social for graduating from there.
One of the first semester students showed up at the end and gave her testimonial. She had said that the previous director had told her, after working as an ED NP in NY, to go back to ICU to get in touch again (she'd been in CVICU for 10 years prior to NP school). That was really awesome to hear from her. She was excited about getting in and excited about starting.
So for any pointers on getting in, just listen to your collegues here. It's the same here as it is there. They did recommend CCRN and shadowing even though they are not required. They said it is more to show your dedication as a professional and to want to learn what it is anethetists do. That's about all I can remember. It was a short trip. My sister has lived there for 10 years, so I want to go to school there to be closer to her.

[niki_m787]

Thank you both!!!