NEW ADDITION: NURSE ANESTHESIA
School launches new speciality program
In a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, during the late
1800s,Alice Magaw was regarded as a master of the
open-drop inhalation technique of anesthesia utilizing
ether and chloroform.Today that hospital is the worldrenowned
Mayo Clinic, and Magaw is known as the "mother
of anesthesia" for her research and achievements in the
field of anesthesiology. As the first-and oldest-clinical
nursing specialty, nurse anesthesia has been around for
more than 125 years and boasts 30,000 advanced practitioners
in the United States.
In response to the growing need for more advanced
practice nurses, the School of Nursing and Health Studies
has developed a new nurse anesthesia program, with the
first group of students starting in the fall.
"We desperately need more nurses with advanced
skills," says Steve Yermal, Ph.D., C.R.N.A., R.N., assistant professor
of clinical nursing."We developed this program to
give nurses specialized training and to give our students
broader opportunities in the nursing profession."
The program is 28 months long, and applicants must be
R.N.s with a B.S.N. degree plus one year of critical care
nursing experience.The school worked closely with the
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine's Department
of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine, and Pain
Management to develop
the curriculum and clinical
training. Students will gain
extensive clinical experience
during the second year of
the program through rotations
at University of Miami/
Jackson Memorial Medical
Center and simulated
learning at UM's Center
for Patient Safety.
"The nurse anesthesia
curriculum is unified around three major themes-interdisciplinary
practice, patient safety, and cultural competency," says
Yermal."There will also be active collaboration among the various
specialties that we teach."
While the new program will be largely focused on
advanced clinical training, students also will work with faculty
on research projects."From the classroom to the clinical setting,
there's always an emphasis on teaching students to use
evidence-based medicine and nursing practices," says Yermal.
To request an application or for more information about
the nurse anesthesia program, call 305-284-8655 or visit
www.miami.edu/nur.
