How long will it take me to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)? I live in California.?

What is the working evironment like? Are CRNA's in demand? Who dominates this field...men or women? If you are a CRNA can I have your e-mail? I would like to know more about your career.

4 years for a bachelors in nursing.
1-2 years of experience as a critical care nurse.
24-30 months for a masters degree in nurse anesthesia.

Work environment is generally in a nice cool air conditioned operating room. Sometimes you have to work in a hot, poorly lit, smelly OB labor room. Sometimes you work in doctor's offices, which run from good to bad. You have a big choice of where you work. I do not work in California as the income tax is too high, too many people do not speak English, and they are sue happy.

Men dominate.

Main website of the AANA is below.

You need to become an RN first - either with a 2-year associates degree or with a 4-year BSN. Either way, at some point you will need to earn your BSN, but if you get your associates degree first, you can get to work as an RN quicker and get your much-needed experience working as a nurse.

Once working as a nurse, you need to work in a critical care environment - ICU - for at least 2 years before you can apply for anesthesia school. It is highly competative - so keep a high GPA (over 3.5 if you can manage it), make yourself attractive to schools by volunteering, taking leadership roles, etc. Be prepared to possibly have to move out of state to get into a program, most states don't have a lot of schools with this program and you need to apply to more than one school. Once in anesthesia school, it is a two year, full time program. It is almost impossible to work during this time, even if you're part time. It's a very demanding program.

Once you graduate you'll probably have no problem finding a job, but it depend on where you live - you might need to relocate. CRNAs make about $100-110k per year to start after graduation.

While nurses in general definitely have more women than men, with CRNAs it's a bit more of an even split.

You could work in a variety of settings, hospital, private surgical center, etc.