PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Carson-Newman University Nurse Anesthesiology Program offers a comprehensive, cohort-based curriculum designed to transform registered nurses into highly skilled, compassionate, and doctoral-prepared Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). Students earn the Doctor of Nurse Anesthesiology Practice (DNAP) degree upon successful completion of this 36-month, full-time program.

Rooted in academic excellence and faith-informed leadership, the curriculum emphasizes advanced didactic instruction, hands-on laboratory and simulation, clinical residency experiences, and scholarly project development. Our program is designed to foster both technical mastery and ethical leadership in the delivery of anesthesia care across all patient populations and practice settings.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The DNAP curriculum consists of 102 total credit hours, including:

  • 84 didactic credit hours

  • 18 clinical credit hours

Credit hour ratios are defined as:

  • Didactic: 1 credit = 15 contact hours

  • Laboratory: 1 credit = 15 contact hours

  • Clinical: 1 credit = 200 contact hours

The curriculum is sequenced across nine semesters

INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH

Year One is delivered primarily on campus and focuses on foundational anesthesia principles, advanced physiology, pharmacology, health assessment, gross anatomy, and simulation-based learning.

Years Two and Three include clinical residencies, fellowships, and doctoral project work, delivered through a hybrid model that blends distance education with scheduled on-campus intensives

Courses in the Nurse Anesthesiology Program are taught primarily in person by highly qualified faculty and content experts, many of whom are nationally recognized leaders in anesthesia education, clinical practice, and simulation. Instruction is delivered through a variety of evidence-based modalities—including lecture, case-based learning, simulation, cadaveric anatomy, and team-based instruction—to promote critical thinking, clinical judgment, and professional formation.

Student progress is assessed through a combination of written exams, practical evaluations, reflective assignments, simulation-based assessments, and scholarly project milestones to ensure competence across cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains.