Nurse Anesthesia | Curriculum

Anesthesia for Nurses (AFN) applicants are required to enroll in the Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia curriculum. Graduates are awarded a Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia degree. Students are instructed for a period of 28 months in accordance with the standards set by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs.  The first 12 months are primarily classroom instruction that supports the students' acqueisition of basic and advanced anesthesia skills necessary for the safe administration of anesthesia. Students practice clinical skills using high-fiedlity simulations.  During the next 16 months, students are immeresed in the clinical area where they administer anesthesia to all types of patients and in all types of practice settings. Students are evaluated on their ability to integrate didactic knowledge to clinical practice, demostrate critical thinking skills, and apprpriate interventions in patient management.

Through our variety of clinical sites, AFN students have opportunities to administer anesthesia to complicated pediatric and adult patients in a large teaching hospital and to patients of all ages in  community hospitals and rural independent CRNA practices. Students obtain extensive hands-on clinical experiences in administering many types of regional anesthesia. Detailed information on clinical sites can be found on the AFN webpage http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/afn/clinical_education.htm