Hello all,

Long time lurker here, greatly enjoy sifting through all of the wisdom on this site. When I grow up I wanna be one of you! I first became intrigued with nurse anesthesia back in high school when I had the opportunity to do a lot of shadowing in the OR. I spent a lot of that time talking with nurse anesthetists about their role and the interest has never left.

Fast forward ten years, I'm now 28 and graduated with my BSN a year ago. I'm originally from St. Louis, MO but had trouble finding a job there as a new graduate. Sadly, some of my classmates are just now getting jobs. So we packed up the family and I took a job at Mayo up here in Rochester, MN. I got a position in an ICU right out of school, yay! We gave it a year and while its been a great experience for me, my poor husband can't find a good job (went from IT project management to supporting Microsoft Office apps for $16/hr) and my kids are homesick. So, its looking like a move back to STL is imminent unless some sort of employment miracle occurs.

I've been browsing job postings and there are a couple of ICU openings I'd be interested in at Barnes- CTICU and surgical/burn/trauma. There is a posting at Saint Louis University hospital for trauma ICU, which I actually did clinicals in during nursing school. There apparently are multiple postitions at the Cochran VA medical center for MICU/SICU. I am familiar with patient populations and acuity levels at Barnes and SLU, but I know absolutely nothing about the St. Louis VAMC aside from the fact that they have had their share of controversies over the last couple of years. I've noticed some of you seem to be familiar with St. Louis, what can you tell me about patient acuity at the VA hospital? Would it even be worth entertaining the idea of working there if my long term goal is anesthesia school?

Thanks for reading my rambling post, I appreciate it!