For the past eight months, Penn's School of Nursing has collaborated with Pennsylvania Hospital -- one of four that comprise the University's Health System -- to develop a two-year master's program in the field of anesthesiology.
The program will be available full-time starting in May.
"It includes 23 courses divided into core courses [as well as] anesthesia specialist theory courses and fieldwork courses," Professor of Nursing and Associate Dean for Academic Programs Anne Keane wrote in an e-mail.
Anesthesia training for nurses in the Philadelphia area began under program director Art Zwerling, who is a certified registered nurse anesthetist at Pennsylvania Hospital. Zwerling will lead the movement of the program to Penn's Nursing School, along with Jason Cwik, who currently heads the anesthesia program at Pennsylvania Hospital.
The idea to bring this master's program to Penn came from a 1998 report issued by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. According to Keane, the report required nurse anesthetists to enroll in programs leading to a master's degree.
"Yet, only about 25 percent of existing programs are fully integrated, university-based advance practice," she added.
Not only are there a limited number of programs leading to master's degrees in the field, but there is also a shortage of CRNAs in general.
Debbie Becker, nursing professor and interim program director for the adult acute care unit, explained that there is a "need for 1,700 new nurse anesthetists each year."
She added that "with the average age of nurses [being] 45 years old, 38 percent of the work force is soon going to retire," causing an even bigger shortage in coming years.
Although there is a lack of CRNAs, there is a "plethora of jobs in this setting, all of which have starting salaries of $120,000," Becker said.
With such a hopeful future for nursing, 150 nurses have already applied to the program, although the preferred class size is approximately only 20 select students.
Student applicants must have both a bachelor of science and Nursing degree, as well as one year of experience in the field. In addition, they are required to submit an application that includes two references and several essays.
As the application process progresses, the Nursing School is looking forward to the new program.
Nursing School Dean Afaf Meleis said in a statement that she believes that the anesthesia program will provide "a dynamic new direction for the School of Nursing."
She added that the school is "excited to be responsive to the needs of health care... and has every expectation that this will be a successful program."
Becker agreed with Meleis and added that all of this training is guaranteed to pay off in the future.
She noted that if she were sick and needed an anesthesiologist, she'd "be honored to have [graduates of the anesthesia program] as [her] anesthetists."
