The Anesthesia Record

Those considering or applying to anesthesia school often ask how much SRNAs really study.  This was certainly a major area of interest for me prior to matriculating.  The answer, of course, is "it depends".

In an effort to keep you from hating me, I'm not going to leave you with "it depends", nor am I going to detail a typical day for me as a student because, frankly, I haven't really noticed a significant pattern as of yet.*  During weeks where we are expected to sit for 3 exams, I study a lot.  Other weeks we might only have one exam (or none at all... Wheeee!) so the time I spend hitting the books is typically less.

Nevertheless, I recorded the amount of time I spent studying last week and thought I'd share this information here.  In total, I spent 30 hours in the classroom (lecture & lab) and another 48 hours studying on my own for a grand total of 78 hours of work.  There are a couple things to note, however:

1. There were a few hours of unproductive study time in there that I omitted from the total reported.  Thus, the number you see is focused study time!

2. Last week was fairly exam-intensive, so my personal study time listed is on the high-ish side.  (Let's just pretend that "high-ish" is a word, yes?)  I might only study 30-40 hours during a light exam week.

3. Our lab space is not large enough to accommodate the entire class, so we are broken up into lab groups that each meet separately.  This means that each group might only meet for 1 hour during a 4 hour block of scheduled lab activity, leaving the rest of time available for individual discretion.  We met in the lab last week, meaning that we had less scheduled class time than normal.

To sum up: While the proportion of personal study time and lecture time may vary, I probably devote an average of 60-70 hours each week to my anesthesia studies (both in and out of the classroom).  This is a lot of time (especially when compared to 36 hour weeks that most of us are used to working in the ICU), but it is completely manageable if you remain interested in and devoted to the material!


* My good friend, Ryan, who is a junior at the Raleigh School of Nursing Anesthesia, posted a great write up about his "typical" day.  Check it out if you're so inclined and be sure to read the rest of his blog (just click on his blog header to view the home page) for another SRNA's perspective on life as an anesthesia student!

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