About the Nurse Anesthesia Program
Students practice advanced anesthetic techniques in our anesthesia skills lab.
For 70 years, the nurse anesthesia program has been highly regarded for an exceptional quality of graduates, as well as for housing faculty of outstanding achievement and recognition, nationally and internationally. We invite you to explore our web site to learn about the nurse anesthesia program, ranked #7 in the nation. You can view a video below from our CEO, recognizing the achievement of the program and our other educational programs at the medical center.
The program offers high quality education and experience to a select group of professional nurses to prepare graduates for a life-long study and practice of anesthesia. The program strives to maintain a top-ranked position through the provision of a rigorous education and program evolution to capitalize upon emerging trends in health care and education. Our guiding vision is "Creating Excellence in Nurse Anesthesia".
This vision embodies more than just saying, "we are going to teach students well". As an analogy, a church or a club are more than just buildings; they encompass the faith, commitment, goodwill, and evangelism of their members. This is the essence of the Excellence we strive to create. We want graduates who embody passion for the art of anesthesia nursing, commitment to professionalism, and stewardship of the profession. We seek to measure output not in numbers of graduates, but in this Excellence. The nurse anesthesia faculty live this vision in their professional lives. Here, students are educated by professional advocates who have held positions of prominance in state, national, and international organizations related to nurse anesthesia.
The Department of Anesthesiology subscribes to the anesthesia care team approach. Students are instructed by both certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) and faculty anesthesiologists. Graduates of the program are prepared to plan, administer, and manage anesthetic delivery to a wide range of patients and in diverse settings. Students receive rich clinical experiences in separate inpatient, outpatient, and pediatric surgical departments at NCBH. In addition, a host of outside clinical sites provide experience in various settings, including community hospital, office surgery, and obstetrics. Students will use our state of the art patient simulation resources to experience critical situations in a controlled environment. Classroom instruction is augmented by a number of technical tools, including computer-based simulations, online testing, and networking.
The academic component of the Wake Forest Baptist Health Nurse Anesthesia Program is accredited by the National League for Nursing. The components specific to nurse anesthesia are currently on a 10-year accreditation by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, {222 South Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, Illinois 60068, 847-655-1160} with "no progress required" in 2005. This is the maximum accreditation period possible, which is granted to few programs. Our accreditation standing attests to the success of our program organization. Students receive ample opportunities for clinical experience and consistently exceed the requirements for certification eligibility. Clinical training includes approximately 800 cases and 1800 hours of anesthesia delivery. Program graduates perform well on the national certification examination. For the graduating class of 2012, the certification examination pass rate for first time takers was 95%, employment of graduates within the first six months of graduation was 100% and the class attrition rate was 8 % (ie, 8 means 2 students did not complete the program).
Wake Forest Baptist Health is one of the nation’s preeminent academic medical centers and ranked as one of America’s “most wired health care providers”. NCBH incorporates over 1,000 beds, including the main hospital and the integrated Brenner’s Children’s Hospital. Over 17,800 surgical procedures are performed annually. Because of specialized facilities, highly skilled staff, and sophisticated medical technology, the institution regularly serves patients from across the United States and abroad. Both the hospital and the anesthesia program have been rated among the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The hospital’s commitment to attracting the best nurses is evidenced by its longstanding Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Members of the hospital's medical staff serve as the clinical faculty, with each staff member performing both teaching and clinical service on a regular basis. In addition, CRNAs at NCBH are hired as clinical instructors so students have the opportunity to benefit from the clinical expertise of many highly trained professional nurse anesthetists.
The program has also partnered with The University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG) to provide graduates with a Master of Science in Nursing degree (MSN) in the Nurse Anesthesia concentration. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro http://www.uncg.edu/ has been highly regarded for over a century and is one of three state institutions granting doctoral degrees. It has assumed its place among top-tier universities in North Carolina and is known for groundbreaking research, community service, caring faculty and high-quality education.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact us. We would be glad to hear from you.