Questions to Ask a CRNA When Shadowing
Questions to ask a certified registered nurse anesthetist while shadowing, for anyone weighing the path. They cover room setup, case planning, practice models, the ICU experience programmes expect, and admissions.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
What is your day like from the time you arrive? What happens before the first case?
Why ask it
The pre case hour is invisible from outside: machine check, drugs drawn up, chart review, the pre op interview. Hearing it laid out corrects the idea that the job starts when the patient arrives.
How do you set up a room and check your machine before a case?
Why ask it
Watching a machine check narrated aloud is one of the most useful things a shadowing day can give you. It shows how much of the work is systematic verification rather than reaction.
What did you look at in this patient's chart before you met them?
Why ask it
Turns your attention to preparation. Expect airway history, cardiac and pulmonary problems, medications, prior anesthesia reactions, and what would change the plan for this particular person.
What are you watching on the monitor right now, and what would make you act?
Why ask it
Best asked quietly during a stable stretch. The answer teaches you which numbers matter, why trends often matter more than single values, and what threshold prompts an intervention.
How did you decide on the plan for this case: general, regional, sedation?
Why ask it
The reasoning behind a plan is the intellectual core of the specialty. Asking about one real case gets you a specific answer where asking about their general philosophy would not.
What did you say to the patient in pre op, and how do you handle someone frightened?
Why ask it
Pre op conversations are brief and consequential. Listen for how they explain risk without alarming anyone, and what they say to a patient who asks whether they will wake up.
How does the anesthesia care model work here, and who do you consult?
Why ask it
Models vary: some sites are anesthesiologist directed, some are care team based, some are staffed by CRNAs alone. This is the most important thing to establish about wherever you are standing.
How independently do you practise, and how does that differ by state or facility?
Why ask it
Scope of practice differs by state and by employer, and it changes the job materially. Ask what they can do here that they could not do somewhere they previously worked.
What route did you take to get here: how long in the ICU, which unit, which programme?
Why ask it
Programmes require critical care experience, and both the length and the type of unit matter. Ask which units their classmates came from, which tells you more than the published minimum.
What did admissions committees seem to care about most, in your experience?
Why ask it
You are asking for observed patterns rather than official criteria. Answers often cover unit acuity, certifications, fluency about drips and ventilators, and how the interview went.
What was hardest about the programme, and what would you do differently?
Why ask it
These programmes are demanding and full time, so what they found hardest is more useful than a ranking. The thing they would change is usually about preparation or about money.
How did you handle the financial side of school, given that most programmes do not allow working?
Why ask it
A practical planning question rather than a personal one. Ask about loans, savings and how long the programme actually ran, since the gap in income is the part people underestimate.
What is your schedule like, including call and weekends?
Why ask it
Call structure, weekend obligations, late finishes and whether call is taken from home vary hugely by employer. Daily life is made of this more than of the case mix.
What does a bad day look like, and what happened on your worst one?
Why ask it
Asked plainly, this gives you the real texture of the work. Let them set the level of detail, and do not press for specifics about an outcome that clearly still weighs on them.
What do you do when a case goes wrong quickly?
Why ask it
You are asking about method rather than drama: calling for help, which roles get assigned, where the emergency drugs are, how the team communicates. It is the part of training most people wonder about.
How do you keep learning now, and what does recertification involve?
Why ask it
Continuing education and recertification requirements are structured and worth understanding before you commit years to the path. Ask what it takes in practice, not only what the rules say.
What settings have you worked in, and how different are they from each other?
Why ask it
Hospital theatres, outpatient surgery centres, obstetrics, pain practice, rural work and locums are substantially different jobs. Someone who has done more than one can compare them for you.
What surprised you about this job after you started?
Why ask it
The gap between expectation and reality holds the useful information. Common answers involve the volume of documentation, the physical demands of long cases, or how much is routine.
What should I be doing in the next year to be a competitive applicant?
Why ask it
A concrete answer beats encouragement: which unit to move to, which certification to sit, how long to wait before applying, and who would be worth asking for a reference.
Is there anything you would tell someone considering this that they never ask about?
Why ask it
An open close that lets them raise what nobody asks, often the strain of call, the years of lost income during school, or what it is like to be responsible for someone unconscious.
How much of a case is routine, and where does your attention concentrate?
Why ask it
Induction, emergence, and position changes are usually the answer. Understanding that the workload is uneven rather than constant is one of the more useful things a shadowing day can teach you.
Who else is involved in this room, and who makes which decisions?
Why ask it
Ask about the working relationship with the surgeon, the circulating nurse, and the anesthesiologist if one is involved. It is the clearest way to understand where the role's authority begins and ends.
Which kinds of cases do you like, and which do you dread?
Why ask it
The dislikes are more informative, whether it is long spine cases, pediatric airways, or a particular surgeon's list. It also shows how much variation exists inside what looks from outside like one job.
What is the hardest part of this job that has nothing to do with medicine?
Why ask it
Expect scheduling, staffing, turnover pressure, documentation, or friction with a particular service. These are the things that make people leave, and they rarely appear in career descriptions.
What do people misunderstand about how your role differs from an anesthesiologist's?
Why ask it
Ask it as a question about misunderstanding rather than about hierarchy and you will get a measured answer. Expect it to cover training routes, scope, and how the two roles overlap in practice.
Which parts of your critical care experience helped you most in school?
Why ask it
You want to know which skills transferred: managing drips, reading hemodynamics, being the one who calls it. It tells you how to spend your remaining ICU time deliberately rather than just accumulating months.
Getting the Most from a Shadowing Day
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the day
- Confirm the practical arrangements: arrival time, parking, where to change, whether you need your own scrubs or a badge, and whether occupational health clearance is required.
- Ask what you may and may not do. Some sites allow observers in the room for induction, others only for parts of a case.
- Learn the vocabulary beforehand: induction, emergence, intubation, monitored anesthesia care, regional block, ASA classification. You will follow far more of the day.
- Bring a small notebook and write questions down as they occur rather than interrupting.
- Eat beforehand and expect a long stretch on your feet without a break.
Reading the room
Induction and emergence are the two busiest and least interruptible moments of any case. Watch during those and save your questions for the stable middle of a case or the turnover between them. If the CRNA stops mid sentence and turns to the monitor, stop talking as well. Nobody minds a quiet observer, and everybody minds being asked a question during a difficult airway.
Conduct in the operating room
- Stay where you are placed. Sterile fields, the anesthesia workstation and the circulating nurse's path are all areas to keep clear of.
- Do not touch anything, including monitors, lines and the machine, and do not lean on the table or the drapes.
- Keep your phone away entirely. Photographs are usually prohibited and always a bad idea.
- You will hear the patient's name and history. Do not repeat any of it, anywhere, to anyone.
- Say something if you feel faint, which is common and expected. Sitting down in the corner is far better than falling.
- Introduce yourself briefly to the surgical team, then be quiet.
After the day
- 1Write down what you saw the same evening, while the sequence is still clear.
- 2Send a short thank you note that mentions something specific you learned.
- 3Ask whether you may come back, and whether they would answer questions while you apply.
- 4Note which parts of the day held your interest and which dragged. That reaction is the actual point of shadowing.
- 5Log the date, hours and site, because programmes often ask for documented shadowing experience.