So, you received this in the mail for a graduate nurse anesthesia program. What’s next?

All I can say is that we are from the same cloth, future CRNA colleagues. 
Here is my story: Seventeen years ago, I received the same letter due to subpar GRE scores. In it, I was told I had to register for two graduate nursing courses and earn at a minimum of a 3.0 grade point average. 
Instead, I registered for 7 grad pre-requisite courses before actual enrollment and earned stellar grades in one year. Then, graduated from the nurse anesthesia program and inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Upon graduation, within three weeks, I scheduled for and passed CRNA Boards on the first attempt. 

I was the first in my cohort to earn a doctorate degree with a prolific dissertation, started a non-profit CRNA mentoring program, became the first CRNA of color Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and Recipient of the 2019 AANA Agatha Award Recipient. 

But, tell me how the GRE was an indicator of success in a graduate nurse anesthesia program? My advice, as a conditional acceptance student, lighten your load by taking a few graduate nurse anesthesia courses with evidence of exemplary grades. 

If you receive a conditional letter of acceptance or placed on a waiting list, keep pushing, keep grinding. Remember, conditional is God’s way of saying your path is already destined and determined. 

You are not the first…now carry on! 
Wallena Gould, EdD, CRNA, FAAN