Crystal Grant, author of Acceptance Granted
Springfield, MA — In recent years, the National Center for Health Statistics estimated upwards of 48 million inpatient surgical procedures performed per year in the United States. Safely administering anesthetics to more than 45 million patients annually, CRNAs are the number one anesthesia providers for surgical procedures done in rural areas, for the brave men and women of the United States armed forces, and for many hospital and healthcare facilities across the nation.
The practice of delivering anesthesia during a procedure is crucial to an operative patient’s safety and well-being. A trained professional must have a thorough understanding of the anesthetics required, the patient’s diagnosis, weight, size, any pre-existing conditions, allergies, and the patient’s body chemistry. They must induce sleep, allow the patient to remain asleep throughout the entire procedure, and revive the patient as expected. The 53,000 members of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists account for 90 percent of the nation’s CRNAs.
RNs, Registered Nurses, and LPNs, Licensed Practical Nurses, combined represent roughly 3 million healthcare professionals. In the medical field, it is nurses who do the heavy lifting. They are the ones who appear first when patients are most vulnerable. Arguably the hardest working medical professionals, they work erratic schedules and long hours without holidays. Still, they ensure compliance, check vitals, monitor progress, and diligently make notations to ensure doctors are updated. The job pays well, but can be strenuous. Career nurses perform at the risk and sacrifice of their own health and vitality. Nurses are our real-life superheroes.
The CRNA median salary is over $150,000 per year, higher than that of Nurse Practitioners and nearly twice the earnings of most RNs and LPNs. Despite the potential for increased earnings and perks, many nurses don’t pursue this position. They can be intimidated by the intense coursework required, the lengthy process, the expense of additional education, or they may feel apprehensive about being directly responsible for holding a patient’s life in the balance. The fear: That one mishap can result in loss of life. For this reason, many eliminate themselves from consideration. African Americans, though they account for 13% of the general population, represent only 1.1% of the Nursing field’s subset of CRNAs.
Confident in her decision to become part of that 1.1%, Crystal Grant has written a book, hoping to encourage others to take the leap and enter this lucrative field. In her book, Acceptance Granted: One Woman’s Journey to Becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (ISBN-13: 978-1092386265), she explains her journey and lays out the step-by-step process it took to advance her nursing career.
One factor that makes Crystal Grant so relatable is that she readily admits, initially, that she allowed herself to become paralyzed by the same fears. Feeling too old, afraid she wasn’t smart enough and, financially unprepared, she decided to pursue this line of work and remained focused, despite the rigors and challenges of the curriculum. Her new book Acceptance Granted: One Woman’s Journey to Becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist offers insight into what that journey might look like when one is facing real-life challenges, and she is fully transparent about the difficulties she endured. She delves into her own personal journey of becoming a nurse anesthetist, the pitfalls, details of her private battles, family struggles, financial hardship, and at one point, even homelessness. By sharing the blueprint, her personal account, as well as answering Frequently Asked Questions, Crystal hopes to inspire those who may still feel being a CRNA is an impossible goal. This highly informative guide sells on Amazon (http://Amazon.com/author/thesixfigurecrna) and should be considered a staple for all who plan a career in nursing.
Crystal Grant will also be sharing her journey, periodically speaking to encourage, inspire, motivate, and educate as many as she can. She hopes to broaden perspectives, helping others to leverage their abilities and consider pursuing this incredibly rewarding career choice, which leads to greater financial security.
About the Author
Crystal Grant was born in Western Massachusetts. In 1998, Crystal moved to North Carolina to attend college. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and began her nursing career in the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC. Over the next eight years, Crystal worked as a registered nurse before deciding to go back to obtain her Master of Science degree in Nurse Anesthesia. In 2012, Crystal graduated with her MSN from Rutgers University in Newark, NJ. She began her CRNA career in Western Massachusetts and has continued practicing in several areas and settings since.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
For speaking engagements and interviews, please call Media Relations, Sales, and Bookings for Crystal Grant at 413-356-7940 or contact by email: thesixfigureCRNA@gmail.com. Learn more about this area of specialization within the nursing profession. Visit https://www.aana.com.
CONNECT, LIKE, and SHARE information about Crystal Grant and Certified Nurse Anesthetists via Instagram: @thesixfigureCRNA and @crysgCRNA. Acceptance Granted: One Woman’s Journey to Becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist can be purchased on Amazon as a paperback.