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Get ready for an enlightening sneak peek into the world of nurse anesthesia education with our special guest, Dr. Melissa Fitch, DNP, CRNA and esteemed Program Director at the University of Evansville.
In this episode, we take a sneak peek at Dr. Fitch’s insider insights and advice on transcript analysis, course selection, and academic excellence. With her years of experience, she reveals the nuances of evaluating nursing programs, red flags to watch out for, and how to present a holistic picture of your academic journey. She also teases the art of selecting the right courses to enhance your chances of success. Join us for this exclusive peek into the wealth of knowledge that Dr. Fitch brings to the table.
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Watch the episode here
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Nurse Anesthesia Educators Unplugged Sneak Peek w. Dr. Fitch, DNP, CRNA and Program Director Of University Of Evansville
I am so excited to share this with you, and I’m so excited to finally release this private CSPA show. We’ve been playing this for over a year, but we’re finally here. I’m so grateful for Dr. Wilson to be hosting this show. For those of you who have been a part of CSPA, I’m sure you’re familiar with who Dr. Wilson is. He has been CSPA’s expert contributor.
He’s played a very integral part in the success of CSPA. I’m so grateful that he has taken on this challenge to recruit faculty for you, the aspiring CRNA. He is going to use his wisdom and skills to be able to bring you questions that he knows matter to you and hear directly from a variety of CRNA faculty. This is our founding episode, and I also want to send out a huge thanks to Dr. Melissa Fitch. She is the program director at the University of Evansville. She is wonderful.
She is a breath of fresh air, which I know you’re going to find in this episode. She is genuinely here to help you succeed. She wants as badly as we do for you to find success on your CRNA journey. She holds nothing back in this episode. Today’s sneak peek is going to be about ten minutes of what we found to be two clips that were going to be very insightful for you. If you are a CSPA student, you’ll have access to this entire episode, which is over 30 minutes long.
For today, we’re doing a sneak peek at the regular CSPA show. This is a private podcast exclusive for CSPA students. We will, on occasion, share these little clips with you here on the show because we want to make sure that we are not holding back from our avid and loyal audience. We want to thank you for that. If you’re a CSPA student, no worries. Have no fear. You’re going to have the full episode at your disposal to listen to whenever you want over and over on repeat, hopefully.
Let’s go ahead and get into what we’re going to cover. I’m not going to spill the beans or the juice, but I’m going to give you some of the highlights of what we’re going to reveal in this sneak peek episode. One thing that we’re going to reveal today is transcripts. This is a common pain point for applicants as far as analyzing their transcripts. It can seem like a beast, especially if you have multiple transcripts from multiple schools.
Some students have overseas transcripts so it can get very complex very quickly. She reveals how she looks at transcripts. I do know they use the NursingCAS. However, almost all schools will similarly find a different way to evaluate your transcripts. They don’t typically just take the NursingCAS GPA and don’t look at the rest of your transcripts or take the time to break down the different types of classes you have taken in your undergrad career. She discusses what that looks like on her end, and how she evaluates transcripts and tries to get a holistic picture of the student.
She also shares some of what she would consider red flags on a transcript. This is really key. Hearing these red flags is going to give you some valuable insight. Also, she stresses the importance of how to avoid these pitfalls going forward if you have not embarked upon improving your GPA yet. I want to make sure you hear that chunk of the episode.
Next, we go into what courses should a student take. This is a common question as far as what can I do to boost my chances of getting in or boost my GPA. What specific courses do you care the most about? She reveals what she finds important and then why that is. I think that aspect right there is key. Lastly, we go over where to take these extra courses. That also seems to be a common pain point where students are like, “I have an option between a 12-week course and a 4-week course. Also, an online option and an in-person option. One is $3,000 and one is $1,500. Can I take the cheaper option and still have it look good towards my academic rigor?”
This is a common position that students find themselves in where they don’t know what to do or what to pick. We break that down a little bit and help you understand what it is they look for when it comes to picking any course. There are so many to pick from these days that it can be very overwhelming when you have ten pathophysiology courses that you could take, but you don’t know what college to take it from because you don’t know what the school is going to look at as the most rigorous type of course.
Versus, what if you took a course at this college and they’re like, “That’s not that hard,” where a student who took a course at this college and they’re going to see, “They got a good grade at this school. I care more about this school.” She shares what her thought process is as far as the selection and as far as where to take these additional courses at. I hope you enjoy this sneak peek and I appreciate you tuning into the show. Thank you very much. Without further ado, let’s get into the show.
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CRNA School Transcript Reviews
Another question that’s in my mind as we’re sitting here talking about it is getting back into the, “I’m an 18, 19-year-old individual. I can resonate with that very well with the fact of how I did in the first year of my undergrad degree.” When you’re looking at transcripts, all these programs have the transcripts, either unofficial or official sent to them. What are some of the first things you look at on the transcript? Obviously, overall GPA is one of the first, but what are some of the other little particulars that you’d like to have or like to look for within the transcripts?
We use NursingCAS as our application platform. They will figure GPAs for us within the system but I have gone back and looked at many transcripts and figured GPAs on my own. Not that I don’t think the elective courses and things like that are important, but there are a lot of basic-level courses that if a student didn’t do very well, I’m not going to count that against them. I look at those courses in their nursing program.
What were the physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology-based nursing courses, and how did they do in those? It’s not necessarily specific to community health or different patient population courses, but the courses that dig deep into patient care across the lifespan and comorbidities and all of those things. I want to know how well they did in those types of courses, and the science-based courses like Stats and Chemistry.
We don’t require A&P as a pre-req but I’m old school. I like to know how they do in their A&P class because there’s going to be a lot of anatomy and physiology involved in anesthesia school. I do look back at those. I also focus on whether someone had to take basic chemistry or even A&P 3 or 4 times to get above a C, that’s a red flag for me. That shows me that they struggle in that area. Sometimes they took it a couple of times when they were younger, and then they tried again as they got mid to late twenties and still weren’t overly successful. That does tend to be a little bit of a red flag for me.
Where To Take Additional Courses For CRNA School
One last question I’ve got for you, at least on the academics and talking about the academic transcripts and GPA type part of the application. The real big question we get a number of times is, where do I take an advanced course from? There are plenty of programs out there. There’s Doane, UNE Phoenix, and Chamberlain. The list goes on and on. There’s the brick-and-mortar four-year institutions that you can take them from. When you look at, “I’m going to take another course, whether it’s an advanced level or graduate level,” what are your thoughts? What do you think about those different types of places? What do you look for if somebody goes to take an advanced science course in relation to where they’re taking it?
That’s a question we get a lot too. They’ll always ask me, “Will you accept it from Phoenix online or whatever type of institution?” I always ask them to send me the course description and I compare it to what we do here. I guess they could come in and try to take some grad-level courses here. It’s just going to be a lot more expensive if they’re doing that prior to admission, but I always ask them to send me the course description and I try to compare. If it looks like it’s simply going to be too basic or a filler course, a rush through, “Get this done in four weeks just so you can meet a requirement,” but they’re not going to learn anything from it, I try to steer them in a different direction.
Nurse Anesthesia Educators Unplugged: When considering taking advanced science courses], send the course description. Nurse Anesthesia Educators try to compare if it looks like it’s simply going to be basic or just a filler course or a rush through to get this done in four weeks just so you can meet a requirement.
That’s a great point because there are a lot of universities out there that are about the quality of the education that they’re providing to these individuals taking it. There’s a number that is about the quantity of people they’re bringing in to help with some of the dollars that they need for the university. It’s guiding and looking at it because not every 12-week and 4-week course is going to be the same and being able to do that.
One thing I always tell people when we’re talking about taking these courses, and I think you would agree with this, is that when you’re going to take additional courses, think about the timing of it. In other words, if you want to take an advanced pathophysiology course and you are struggling with pathophys units- Also, you’ve struggled a little bit with it in the past in your other degree- Don’t do that at a time when you know you’re about to hit a big busy time in your life, that you can’t dedicate and focus on the course in itself because a poor grade is going to do you a whole lot more harm than having not taken it at all.
You don’t want to add further damage to your GPA if your goal is to try to bring that up and make yourself a stronger candidate. You’ve got to make sure that you’re at a place where you’re ready to take it and you’re ready to focus on it.
Pathophysiology or Pharmacology?
This is a question we get on our blogs and in our social media posts all the time. What courses should I take to get into nurse anesthesia school? A lot of them have maybe a 3.2 or 3.1 GPA and they’re trying to build that up to a nice standard or if they are saying that they struggled in some courses in or in nursing school, they’re always asking. I’m curious. Across the nation, what are your thoughts on the courses that are great to take to prepare you for anesthesia school?
We’ve had several that have gone and taken some grad-level pathophysiology courses. I like that because one of the things that I tell applicants when they are calling or emailing and they want to know what is going to make me a stronger candidate is even after they get accepted and they say, “What can I do between now and the day I start?”
Pathophysiology is one of the things that I focus on. I tell them, “Take the sickest patients in the ICU. Ask the questions. When the hospitalists and practitioners are coming in, they’re writing orders, and they’re starting treatments, ask why.” We come into anesthesia school at the top of our game as strong ICU nurses and we know what we need to know at that level. However, we started anesthesia school and it’s a whole new level.
We come into anesthesia school at the top of our game as really, strong ICU nurses and we know what we need to know at that level. But then we start anesthesia school and it's a whole new level. Click To TweetWe may have been giving these medications and following these orders for a long time, but not digging deep into the why and how these treatments and medications work. I always like it when I have students that have taken it upon themselves to maybe take a grad-level pathophys class in order to prep for school and to bring their GPA up to even a bit of a higher level. I think it shows a lot of initiative and forward-thinking in preparing for coming to anesthesia school.
I know a lot of these programs now. It’s interesting to see some of the shifts that we’re seeing within the universities. Those grad-level courses are not being offered as frequently because of the number of people taking them obviously. They’re trying to hold them all for degree-seeking individuals. We always talk about those advanced courses, which may not be graduate level, but the higher advanced. I think that’s a great idea. You’re right about the pathophysiology side of it. It is huge, and I also heard you mention the pharmacology side of it. Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on pharmacology and taking pharmacology, or maybe even advanced pharm courses before they come in.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I will tell you about our program specifically when our students begin their first semester, they have anatomy and they have a basic pharm class. Those are both taught along with the physician assistant program. One of our faculty members, the chair of the PA program is a pharmacist by trade. He teaches their advanced pharm class.
For us specifically, they get a really good comprehensive basic pharm class before they get to the advanced pharm class that we teach within the program. I feel comfortable with that. Now, I feel like if a program doesn’t have a good base-level pharm class, encouraging a student to take a good comprehensive pharmacology class as a review or as a reminder to get that good base before they start is not a bad idea.
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That sums up this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you guys found that so valuable and I look forward to sharing some more golden nuggets with you guys in the future. Again, if you’re a CSPA member, there will be an entire section inside the academy that’s labeled Nurse Anesthesia Educators Unplugged Podcast. It will be inside the membership. You log into your membership to have access to this. You can play this on audio whenever you are driving, cooking, folding laundry, or whatever fits your learning style.
We hope you find a lot of value in these episodes and we’re excited for future episodes to share with you. Until next time, thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate you. Please be sure to share. If the CSPA Podcast has been helpful for you and your CRNA journey, I would so very much appreciate it if you were able to share this valuable show with others that you know who are embarking on their CRNA journey. I call it paying forward.
If this has been a valuable resource for you, or a valuable tool on your own CRNA journey, I would greatly appreciate it if you were able to share it with someone else down the road. Even if you don’t know anyone right now, keep us in mind to make sure you send people our way because we want to help you find success. We want to help your peers find success. Cheers to your future and thank you so much. Until next time, take care.
Important Links
Join CRNA School Prep Academy for Complete Access to the Full Episode PLUS ALL of the Planning Tools, Interview Prep Tools and More That Have Helped Thousands of Nurses Gain Acceptance Into CRNA School: https://www.crnaschoolprepacademy.com/join
Join the CSPA email list: https://www.cspaedu.com/podcast-email
Join the Free Facebook Community here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/crnaschoolprepacademyfree
Book a mock interview, resume or personal statement critique, transcript review and more: www.teachrn.com
