UI Anesthesia Nursing Graduate Program > Our Program

Program Design

The Anesthesia Nursing Program is designed to provide a Registered Nurse, who possesses the minimum of a baccalaureate degree and who has completed all of the prerequisite requirements, an educational opportunity at the graduate level in an advanced practice specialization. Students who complete this program are eligible to write the national certification examination, which qualifies them as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).

Accreditation Status

The University of Iowa College of Nursing Anesthesia Nursing Program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. On October 7, 2000 the program was awarded the maximum accreditation status of 10 years. In 2010, the CRNA program will undergo DNP accreditation, increasing the length to 36 months and adding additional courses.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). In addition, the DNP programs are also approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing. A graduate of an advanced practice major in a DNP program is eligible to take a certification examination and apply for an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) license.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Nurse anesthesia (SRNA) programs throughout the United States are in the process of transitioning from a Master’s degree format to a Practice Doctorate format.

The University of Iowa College of Nursing has completed the CCNE application and site visit and anticipates approval of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree this fall. Therefore, students being interviewed this fall 2009 will, if all things occur as planned, begin a 36 month DNP program in early June 2010 and graduate 36 months later in May 2013 with a DNP and eligibility to take the CRNA exam. The DNP/CRNA program will be 36 months long and will have different and more courses than the MSN/CRNA program.

Students with an MSN/CRNA credential will not be grandfathered-in to the DNP. Students graduating from the University of Iowa, as well as other CRNA programs before receiving all required DNP accreditation, will receive a MSN degree. They can take additional coursework to obtain the DNP. Former MSN graduates with the ARNP and CRNA credential can complete the DNP in 12 month full-time or 24 months part-time. Since there have been several changes in the MSN and CRNA programs over the years, the exact coursework needed for completing the DNP will be evaluated and determined by the College of Nursing on an individual basis.

For more information about the DNP, visit the American Association of Colleges of Nursing website at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP. Read the DNP Fact sheet and the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice for the most relevant information. There is also a list of colleges offering the DNP program. The University of Iowa is in the forefront of shifting advanced practice nursing from MSN to DNP entry programs.

Program Sequence Description

The course of study at The University of Iowa which leads to the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree with a specialization in Anesthesia Nursing will involve 36 months of intense study and clinical experience. The College of Nursing's Systems & Practice Department and the College of Medicine's Department of Anesthesia jointly sponsor the Anesthesia Nursing Program at The University of Iowa.

The anesthesia nursing educational program combines the academic requirements of the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational programs and the nursing DNP's degree requirements at the University of Iowa College of Nursing.

The program plan for the Anesthesia Nursing Program includes both didactic and clinical experiences. Faculty provide classroom, clinical instruction, and supervised clinical experience designed to instruct the student in both graduate nursing topics and in the principles and practice of anesthesia and related areas of care. In addition, students present seminars and clinical conferences. The program’s curriculum is divided into an academic and clinical phase.

Academic Phase: students in classroom

In the academic phase, classes are taught by faculty from both the College of Nursing and College of Medicine. During the first two semesters (Fall I and Spring I), students complete all nursing core courses, the anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and assessment course, the physics and chemistry course, anesthesia equipment and technology course, and the general pharmacology course.

Clinical Phase:

Mees Intubation Mornings during the third semester (Summer II) are when students gain their first clinical experiences with their preceptors, the staff CRNAs, in one of the 30 operating rooms at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC).

The UIHC is a comprehensive tertiary care facility supporting all major specialties and subspecialties for the entire state of Iowa. Nurse anesthesia student education occurs in close coordination with the education and training of a variety of health care professionals.

In the operating room, nurse anesthesia students learn to integrate technical and clinical experiences with their classroom instruction. The clinical assignments provide students with an orientation to the major surgical specialties. In the afternoons of this semester, students attend a course that involves a basic overview of the many aspects of anesthesia. This course is taught by Department of Anesthesia faculty. Students will also gain anesthesia assessment experience evaluating patients in the Anesthesia Pre-Surgical Evaluation Clinic at the UIHC.

During the fifth semester (Fall II), students complete the remainder of their academic courses and also continue development of their clinical skills. Class time, clinical hours, and preparatory time for class and clinical could occupy about 60 hours per week. Assignments for emergency anesthesia experience (call) also begin during this semester. All anesthesia care provided by anesthesia nursing students at UIHC is under the direction of a faculty anesthesiologist.

SamT Advanced clinical anesthesia rotations begin in the sixth semester (Spring II) and continue through the tenth (Summer IV) semester until graduation in May. During this clinical phase of the program, every student will get at least three months of anesthesia experience in our rural clinical sites in Spencer, Bloomfield, and Manchester, Iowa. This exposure makes the University of Iowa one of the few nurse anesthesia program that provides its students with a foundation in small-town, CRNA-only anesthesia practice.

An additional 5-6 weeks of experience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha (providing obstetrical anesthesia), another 5-6 weeks at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Iowa City (administering anesthesia for individuals with multi-system diseases), and 5-6 weeks at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines (for cardiac anesthesia) round out the program’s clinical rotations. The clinical experiences outside of Iowa City usually alternate with clinical assignments in more advanced surgical specialty areas at UIHC or the VAMC during the clinical phase.

Upon successful completion of all University of Iowa, College of Nursing, and Anesthesia Nursing Program requirements, students will be awarded the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Degree with a specialization in Anesthesia Nursing from the University of Iowa Graduate College. The University of Iowa, College of Nursing, does offer a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree completion program, for ARNP's with MSN's (including CRNA's). The DNP involves 4-5 semesters of part-time study, with preference given to Iowa graduates.

Graduates of the University of Iowa can expect to meet or exceed the required educational and experiential preparation required to write the National Certification Examination administered by the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists. This program prepares graduates for career entry as nurse anesthetists, or the option to pursue doctoral studies in nursing at the University of Iowa.