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Everybody loves the after photo. CRNA, six figures, living happily ever after. Almost nobody talks about what it actually took to get there.

Chris O'Connor was a teen mom who had her son in high school, then a single mom of two who put herself through CRNA school on maxed-out loans, food stamps, and daycare assistance. She technically seeded out. Her GPA slipped below the line, the school missed it, financial aid caught it, and she spent a whole semester one test away from being sent home. Her last exam in the program, she needed a 76. She got a 76.

In this one, Chris tells the version of the story nobody puts on the highlight reel: raising two kids while studying, sending her son to live with his dad for a stretch because she had to choose herself, and the mindset that got her through, just make the next test, just make the next day. She also gets into life on the other side, the first paycheck that made her cry, going 1099 and locums, and why she'll tell any single parent staring at an acceptance letter the same thing, if I can do it, anybody can do it.

Shantall works with Chris and has heard this story before, Marc keeps it honest, and Chris says the quiet part out loud. If you've ever looked at that mountain and thought there's no way, this is the episode that talks you back into the chair.

This is our perspective as CRNAs, not medical or financial advice.

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CRNA, nurse anesthesiologist, CRNA school, single mom nursing school, nurse anesthesia school, how to become a CRNA, perseverance, Clock Out and Connect

Chapters

0:00 Icebreaker: the funniest thing a patient ever said going under

7:23 Why she became a nurse, then a CRNA she never planned on

10:15 She got in, now how does she pay for it?

11:18 Maxed-out loans, food stamps, and quitting her job for school

13:17 What a day-to-day week looked like with two kids

14:51 Her biggest fear: flunking out

15:14 The GPA slip the school missed and financial aid caught

17:10 The last test she needed a 76 on

19:02 Not a 4.0 doesn't mean you're not smart

20:58 What she had to let go of, and why "no" is just an excuse

23:03 What her kids say about it now that they're grown

26:13 How she dug out: a study group and the one A she needed

28:13 Why we made this episode

29:27 What she'd tell the single mom who thinks it's impossible

30:16 Choosing herself, and sending her son to live with his dad

31:54 Food stamps to a real paycheck: the transition

33:38 The first thing she bought for herself in three years

35:19 Every practice model she's worked, and her favorite

38:12 When a facility cuts corners and it's time to walk

40:50 The real story on going locums

43:00 Marc's Minnesota winter and the snowblower that saved him

52:26 The business of anesthesia nobody teaches in school

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