Curriculum

The DNP Nurse Anesthesia Program (NAP) delivers a contemporary and evidence-based curriculum using faculty and contributors that are expert educators, clinicians, researchers, and leaders in the profession. Faculty are chosen that have experience with both in-person and distance education best practices.  They facilitate student learning and professional growth with student-centered active learning experiences, modeled clinical and scholarly excellence and steadfast professionalism. Using a blended learning model, our curriculum combines the best aspects of online learning activities and interactions, hands-on skills lab and high-fidelity simulation sessions, and collaborative clinical education experiences into an innovative and dynamic learning experience.  Students will be prepared as doctorally prepared well-rounded clinicians who will be able to enter full-service anesthesia delivery models upon graduation.

Our program outcomes are geared towards all the essential competencies needed for the doctorally prepared advanced practice nurse (APRN) specializing in nurse anesthesiology.  As patient needs have become ever more diverse and complex, the skills and knowledge of APRNs is essential in providing high-quality comprehensive patient care, including along the entire spectrum of peri-anesthesia care. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) have established the core competencies which meet the established essentials of doctoral nursing practice, upon which our curriculum is founded. Additionally, the Graduate Standards set by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA) are a complimentary set of didactic and clinical core competencies that serve as terminal outcomes for South College to accomplish during their education. Below are our DNP NAP outcomes, correlated to accreditation standards from the AACN and the COA.

DNP Program Outcome	AACN DNP Essentials COA Graduate Standrads
1. Synthesize scientific evidence and methods to design, direct, and evaluate strategies to promote and provide effective patient-centered care.	AACN: Essential I, III COA: Perianesthesia (D.1-D.12) Critical Thinking (D.13-D.24)
2. Incorporate leadership skills and interprofessional team building strategies to improve quality metrics within healthcare systems, organizations, and diverse practice settings.	AACN: Essential I, II COA: Leadership (D.31-D.32) Communication (D.25-D.30)
3. Employ information systems and technology in the delivery of transformation healthcare.	AACN: Essential IV COA: Patient Safety (D.1-D.4) Communication (D.25-D.30)
4. Advocate for evidence-based health policy to improve local, national, and/or global patient and health population outcomes.	AACN: Essential V COA: Professional Role (D.33-D.51)
5. Utilize effective interprofessional communication and collaborative skills to facilitate improvement in population health.	AACN: Essential VI COA: Communication (D.25-D.30)
6. Apply advanced levels of clinical judgement and systems thinking in designing, delivering, and evaluating evidence-based care for clinical treatment, clinical prevention, and improvement of population health.	AACN: Essential VII, VIII COA: All Graduate Standards (D.1-D.51)

 

The South College DNP NAP is a rigorous curriculum delivered in an innovative and flexible hybrid manner. As stated above, the didactic portions of the program will be delivered via a combination of quality distance education and in-person on-campus intensive learning sessions that are mandatory. Faculty will be employed that are both content experts and skilled in distance education pedagogy. However, nearly each quarter until program year three, students will also come together at the Parkside Learning Site in Knoxville, TN for these face-to-face sessions focusing on instruction in complex lecture topics/skills labs/simulation training. Importantly, it will not be required for students to physically relocate for the front-loaded didactic portion of the program, consisting of slightly more than one year of study.

The DNP NAP will have an academic calendar unique to the program needs. Didactic courses will be 11 weeks in length, inclusive of any intensive sessions. During the front-loaded didactic portion of the program (quarters 1 – 5) there will be two-week breaks between each quarter. Clinical courses are 12 weeks long. During quarters that have both didactic and clinical courses (quarters 6 – 12), courses will start on the same date, but didactic courses will end one week earlier than clinical courses. During the clinical portion of the curriculum, there will be one-week breaks observed between each quarter. Below you will find a sample academic calendar for Year One of the program, beginning January 2022.

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Winter Quarter – 2022

Quarter begins – 1st Day of Classes	Jan 3, 2022
Q1 Intensive (NSG 7110)	Jan 3 – Jan 7, 2022
Last Date to Add/Drop Courses	Jan 10, 2022
Holiday – Martin Luther King Jr Day	*Jan 17, 2022
Last Date to Withdrawal with W Grade	Feb 18, 2022
Quarter Ends – Didactic Courses	Mar 18, 2022
Quarter Ends – Clinical Practicum Courses	Mar 25, 2022

 

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Spring Quarter – 2022

Quarter begins – 1st Day of Classes	Apr 4, 2022
Last Date to Add/Drop Courses	Apr 11, 2022
Last Date to Withdrawal with W Grade	May 20, 2022
Holiday – Memorial Day	*May 30, 2022
Q2 Intensive (NSG 5341NA)	June 13 – June 17, 2022
Quarter Ends – Didactic Courses	June 17, 2022
Quarter Ends – Clinical Practicum Courses	June 24, 2022

 

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Summer Quarter – 2022

Holiday – Independence Day	*July 4, 2022
Quarter Begins – 1st Day of Classes	July 5, 2022
Last Date to Add/Drop Courses	July 12, 2022
Last Date to Withdrawal with W Grade	August 19, 2022
Holiday – Labor Day	*Sept 5, 2022
Quarter Ends – Didactic Courses	Sept 16, 2022
Quarter Ends – Clinical Practicum Courses	Sept 23, 2022

 

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Fall Quarter – 2022

Quarter Begins – 1st Day of Classes	Oct 3, 2022
Last Date to Add/Drop Courses	Oct 10, 2022
Q4 Intensive (NSG 7430)	Oct 17 – Oct 20, 2022
Last Date to Withdrawal with W Grade	Nov 18, 2022
Holiday – Thanksgiving Break	Nov 23 – Nov 25, 2022
Quarter Ends – Didactic Courses	Dev 16, 2022
Quarter Ends – Clinical Practicum Courses	Dec 23, 2022

*Holidays for students on clinical rotations are determined by clinical sites*

Sample Curriculum Plan

The curriculum dashboard below displays the sample curriculum plan across the entire three years of the program. Courses in red font are didactic courses. Courses in black font are didactic courses with an on-campus intensive session associated with the course. Intensive sessions will typically consist of 3-5 days on campus with in-person instruction via lecture, problem-based learning, skills training and high-fidelity simulation. Courses in blue font are clinical courses.

On-Campus Intensive Sessions

On-campus intensive sessions provide opportunities for other activities, as well as in-person didactic and simulation lab learning. This can include orientation sessions for didactics or clinical rotations, 1:1 advising sessions, collaboration with classmates on scholarly projects, student peer mentoring, interprofessional activities with other South College students and faculty, and various other opportunities. The following three sample dashboards display the plan of intensive session activities during each year of the program, as well as the advising plan. Sessions with an advisor can always be scheduled outside of regularly planned sessions as needed.

Clinical Curriculum

Clinical education will occur in regional clinical satellite campuses, distributed nationally. The rotations will be designed so that within each regional clinical satellite, where a student can acquire the entire spectrum of case minimums needed for board eligibility after graduation. Each regional collection of clinical rotations will function as essentially a satellite clinical campus. Clinical education at South College provides students with exposure to a variety of anesthesia practice settings and a wide range of patient populations across the lifespan. Clinical practicum courses begin during program year two (quarters 6-8) in a part-time capacity and increase to full-time clinical immersion during program year three (quarters 9-12). Throughout the clinical practicum series, students are integrated into clinical settings as they learn to function as doctoral prepared CRNAs and deliver holistic, evidence-based anesthesia care.

Clinical education experiences provide students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to clinical situations under the direct supervision and guidance of credentialed clinical preceptors. In clinical learning environments students develop safe and effective skills in all aspects of anesthesia care while also developing the ability to work as part of, and lead, a healthcare
team.

What makes our clinical education program different?

• South College has cultivated relationships with clinical affiliate facilities across the country to meet the need of communities. Upon acceptance to the program, each student will be assigned to one of six clinical satellite locations based on applicant preference and availability. Our goal, if desired by the applicant, is to assign clinical rotations close to their home location to circumvent the need for relocation for the entirety of the program. Relocation will be required by the beginning of quarter six if the student lives outside of the clinical satellite location to which they are assigned. No relocation is required for the first five quarters of the program.
• Our clinical satellite campuses are situated around the nation at facilities that are invested in mentoring the next generation of CRNAs. With our hybrid distance education curriculum design, more students will be able to remain in their local communities while enjoying the benefits of a rigorous didactic, simulation, and clinical curriculum.
• Clinical faculty: Clinical faculty are an integral part of our clinical experiences for students, and so we invest  in those faculty by offering mentorship and training opportunities annually and as needed to support our clinical affiliates, site coordinators, and clinical preceptors.
• It should be noted by the applicant that we will provide the clinical schedule that affords our students the most valuable, rich and true-to-life experiences, to mirror what life will be like as a graduate nurse anesthetist. This will include clinical rotations shifts of varied length and during off-hours. Call shifts and/or weekend hours will be incorporated into the senior level full-time clinical nurse anesthesia residency.

Clinical Affiliates

The South College DNP Nurse Anesthesia Program maintains exceptional relationships with clinical affiliate facilities across the nation. Clinical affiliate facilities include:

• Arizona (Tucson/Phoenix)
  • Banner University Medical Center, Main Campus
  • Banner University Medical Center, South Campus
  • Mountain Vista Medical Center
  • Tempe St. Luke’s
  • Abrazo West Campus Hospital
• Georgia (Atlanta-metro Area)
  • Piedmont Henry
  • Piedmont Newton
  • WellStar North Fulton
  • Southern Regional Medical Center
• Florida (Orlando)
  • AdventHealth Orlando
• Indiana (Fort Wayne and surrounding area)
  • Lutheran Hospital
  • The Orthopedic Hospital
  • Bluffton Regional Medical Center
  • Dupont Hospital
  • Kosciusko Community Hospital
• Louisiana (Alexandria)
  • Rapides Regional Medical Center
  • Christus St. Francis Cabrini Hospital
  • Christus Cabrini Surgical Center
• Texas (McAllen/Edinburg)
  • Doctors Hospital at Renaissance