Nurse Anesthesia Program

The nurse anesthesia program is a 28-month course of study designed to prepare professional nurses as practitioners of nurse anesthesia eligible for national certification. Applications to the program are accepted throughout the year for consideration by the Nurse Anesthesia Admissions Committee that meets each Spring. Each new class will begin in January.

Mission
The mission of the nurse anesthesia program is to provide the students clinical and didactic curriculum which enables them to meet graduation requirements of this program and to take the National Certification Exam so they can serve as CRNAs. 

Philosophy
In meeting our mission, the faculty of the nurse anesthesia program accepts the following beliefs:

• Human beings are individuals with needs, values, worth, and dignity. Although many human responses may be generalized and are predictable, all humans are unique and constantly interact with the environment in efforts to achieve a balance between their own unique needs and those of society. Adaptation is a process of seeking a maximum level of human functioning. Nurse anesthetists assist patient's physical and psychosocial adaptation to the anesthesia environment.
• Society is comprised of individuals, families, groups, and communities that possess dynamic structure, values, and beliefs which influence individual and group behavior. Members of society live in settings, both rural and urban, with varying levels of wellness and health care needs.
• Health refers to an individual's level of mental and physical functioning on a wellness-illness continuum, not merely the absence of disease. Health is influenced by developmental stages, by social and cultural factors, by previous experiences and self-expectations, and by personal choices about lifestyle and values. We believe access to health care is a human right.
• Nursing, as a discipline and a practice profession, is at once an art and a science concerned with human response to illness or potential health problems. Nursing involves caring for and about people. The goal of nursing is to assist individuals, families, groups, and communities to promote, attain, and maintain health or assure peaceful death through collaboration among clients, professional nurses, and other health care providers. Nurses are accountable to the clients they serve and are responsible for advancing nursing knowledge, critical thinking, theory, research, and lifelong inquiry.
• Learning is a dynamic internal process through which individuals develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Learning is a lifelong process evidenced by growth and sustained change in behavior. Learners vary in their past experiences, learning patterns, cognitive structures, motivation, interests, and life goals. Learning is facilitated by the learner's active participation in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of their own learning experiences. Faculty in the nurse anesthesia program is dedicated to the educational development of nurses in the specialty of nurse anesthesia.
• Nursing education guides the learner to attain competencies required for nursing. Nursing education considers the uniqueness of the learner and fosters commitment, accountability, autonomy, leadership, self-awareness, and continued professional development.

Graduates of the Master's program are clinical scholars who integrate the science and art of nursing as well as articulate nursing's unique contribution in a dynamic health care environment. We believe that graduate education challenges students to think creatively in order to develop visionary alternatives appropriate to health care. The Nurse Anesthesia Program faculty subscribe to the belief that learning is a developmental process through which declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge bases are developed and refined in a developmental fashion. They also believe that case-based anesthesia instruction allows students to acquire flexible knowledge structures required to apply theory to practice.

Accreditation:
The East Carolina University College of Nursing Nurse Anesthesia program was developed in 2002. This program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA; 222 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge, IL, 60068, (847) 692-7050). 

Administrators:
Professor & Director, Nurse Anesthesia program - Maura S. McAuliffe, CRNA, PhD, FAAN
Associate Director & Director of Clinical Education - Melydia J. Edge, CRNA, MSN
Greg Gambrell, CRNA, MSN

Admission Requirements:
Admission to the Master of Science in nursing program requires the student to meet the minimum admission requirements for graduate study of the university and the following requirements of the College of Nursing:

• A baccalaureate degree in nursing from an accredited program and an undergraduate GPA 3.0;
• Acceptable score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE);
• Current non-restricted license to practice as a registered nurse (RN) in North Carolina;
• At least one year adult critical care experience and personal interview with Nurse Anesthesia Admissions Committee;
• A two-page statement describing the applicant's interest in graduate study, career goals, and the MSN degree's relationship to those goals;
• Four professional references (two on forms provided in nurse anesthesia admissions packet);
• A course in statistics and an undergraduate course in research;
• Courses in physiology and chemistry/biochemistry (within five years highly recommended);
• Applications accepted throughout the year and admission interviews are conducted in the Spring for admission to class in January.
  

Graduation Requirements:

• All graduate students are required to maintain a grade average of "B".
• If a student does not register for courses for a semester, they must complete a readmission form (available in the Graduate School Office).
• All graduate students complete a comprehensive examination at the end of their program; Students must be registered for NURS 6993 during the semester they complete the comprehensive examination. Students may take the comprehensive examination only twice.
• MSN students are required to keep health requirements and liability insurance requirements up-to-date throughout their clinical courses.
• Upon completion of the Nurse Anesthesia Program the student will be eligible to sit for the National Certification Examination.

Selection Criteria:
Total enrollment of anesthesia students is limited. Therefore, all applicants who might meet minimum requirements for admission may not necessarily be selected. The admission of each class will be based on the "best qualified" as determined by the Admissions Committee. All decisions by this committee are final and not subject to appeal. Selection will be based upon the following criteria:

• Personal interview in which the applicant demonstrates critical care knowledge, skills and abilities
• Minimum one year Critical Care work experience - Adult ICU
• Grade point average (minimum GPA 3.0)
• References that rate professional performance as excellent or above average
• Completed Anesthesia Program Application Addendum Package
• ACLS and PALS (both required)
• GRE

Financial Aid:
Financial assistance is available through:

1. Scholarships awarded by the university
2. University work-study and self-help programs
3. Federal loans
4. Private Scholarships
5. NC Nurse Scholars Program
6. Scholarships Available through the AANA

Time Commitment:
The student's time commitment will be approximately 40-70 hours per week. This time commitment includes study time. One hour of classroom time generates two hours or more of study time. The student should expect a rotating schedule during clinical training.

Admission Fees and Tuition:
Students will be subject to the East Carolina University Tuition and Fee Schedule, which is published twice per year in the ECU Course Registration Schedule.

The Fall 2009/Spring 2010 Session Fees are as follows:

Summer Session Fees
Resident tuition and required fees = $284.00 per credit hour
Out of State tuition and required fees = $858.00 per credit hour

Clinical Course Fee
$125 per course for the following courses: NURS 6820, NURS 6821, NURS 6822 and NURS 6823, for a total of $500.
Total cost for seven semesters (North Carolina Resident) - $18,569.00
Total cost for seven semesters (Non-Resident) - $52,605.00

Additional Requirements (approximate costs)
Each Nurse Anesthesia Student will be required to have:
Ear Piece - $40
Textbooks - $1200

Self-Evaluation Examination
Students will be required to take this exam (current cost $125 per exam) once during the program.

AANA Associate Membership
Students will be encouraged to join the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Associate Membership Program. The cost is $100 and provides subscription to the AANA Journal, the AANA Bulletin, and eligibility to serve on one of the councils associated with the AANA or the AANA Education Committee. Students will also be encouraged to maintain membership in other professional organizations.

Professional Liability Insurance
Students will be required to purchase this insurance (see policy on Liability Insurance) prior to enrolling in clinical practicum courses. Currently, this is purchased through the AANA for approximately $250.00.

ALL COSTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT WRITTEN NOTICE

Technical Requirements:
The nurse anesthesia program is a technically advanced program, and therefore we need technically advanced students. Please visit the Dowdy Student Stores Computer suggestions site to make sure that you will be equipped to handle all the expectations of the program.