Nursing Practice: Nurse Anesthesia Across the Lifespan, D.N.P.

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The Nurse Anesthesia Across the Lifespan is a post-baccalaureate DNP concentration requiring a BSN to apply. It provides students both the theory and clinical practice required to meet the educational requirements to take the national certifying examination upon graduation The specialty in Nurse Anesthesia Across the Lifespan is offered in partnership with Carolinas Medical Center. Clinical experiences are offered at Atrium Health facilities in the Charlotte area. This program is full-time, campus-based, and can be completed in 9 semesters. Students are admitted once per year and begin their program of study in the summer semester. Interviews are conducted for the top candidates two times per academic year. Application is required at both UNC Charlotte and Carolinas Medical Center School of Nurse Anesthesia. All application materials must be received prior to the published deadline.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is the terminal practice degree in Nursing. The DNP prepares students to practice in an advanced clinical role and provide leadership in a dynamic healthcare system. Graduates of the program will be able to analyze systems of care and provide leadership to improve patient safety and quality of care and to implement evidence-based, culturally competent care. Visit nursing.charlotte.edu and atriumhealth.org/education/Graduate-Medical-Education/School-of-Nurse-Anesthesia for information on application deadlines and program metrics.

Admission Requirements

Hold a current unrestricted RN licensure in the U.S. at the time of application with eligibility for NC licensure
Earned Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing (BSN) from a college or university accredited by an accepted accrediting body
Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores no older than 5 years; a minimum combined score of 293 on the verbal and quantitative sections is recommended (MAT scores are not accepted)
A minimum GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale for all undergraduate work after high school
A minimum GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale for all basic undergraduate science courses taken since high school (e.g., Chemistry, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and Microbiology)
Completion of an undergraduate statistics course with a grade of B or above
An essay (statement of purpose) limited to a single page, describing the applicant’s experience, fit to the CRNA role, and examples of leadership; candidates should highlight unique characteristics such as being bilingual and leadership experiences
Three letters of recommendation from persons familiar with the applicant’s professional qualifications, one letter must be from the applicant’s clinical manager; others can include colleagues, academic professors, or physicians
A minimum 18 months of current full-time critical care experience with adult patients is required prior to matriculation; Acceptable experience includes: Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit, Trauma Intensive Care Unit, Neuro Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. Experiences that are not acceptable include: Flight Team, Emergency Room, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Caret, Post Anesthesia Care, and Operating Room
Current certification in Basic Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support with documentation provided only to Carolinas Medical Center Nurse Anesthesia Program application
Interviews are required for the top-scoring applicants who meet the admission requirements. Top scoring applicants will be invited for an interview with the Program’s Admissions Committee. Only after a successful interview, will applicants be offered admission.
Professional resume
The application process requires two applications - one to UNC Charlotte and one to Carolina’s Medical Center

Degree Requirements

The Nurse Anesthesia Across the Lifespan DNP program requires completion of 89 credit hours of approved courses, completion of a minimum of 2000 clinical practice hours, and completion of the Scholarly Project. Only full-time study is available. All courses are offered once a year and must be taken in sequence.

Core Courses (18 credit hours)

Concentration Courses

Theory Courses (25 credit hours)

Methods Courses (21 credit hours)

Clinical Residency Courses (19 credit hours)

Scholarly Project Courses (6 credit hours)

Clinical Requirements

Students are required to successfully complete a minimum of 2000 hours of supervised clinical. Atrium Health provides clinical instruction for students enrolled in the nurse anesthesia program. The primary location for clinical is Carolinas Medical Center, an 850-bed Level-1 Trauma Center and regional referral center for North and South Carolina. The medical center and teaching hospital provides students state-of-the-art clinical facilities and access to patients undergoing a variety of complex surgical and diagnostic procedures. All facilities provide a preceptor-to-student ratio of no more than 1 to 2 with a CRNA and/or physician anesthesiologist. The clinical hours and number and variety of cases are exceptional; students far exceed the number of clinical hours and cases required for certification.

Degree Total = 89 Credit Hours

Grade Requirements

An accumulation of two C grades in any required coursework or any grade of C or below in any NUAN course will result in suspension of the student’s enrollment. Students must successfully pass the Scholarly Project proposal defense and the Scholarly Project defense in order to graduate. Graduate students must have a 3.0 GPA in the courses on their degree plan of study in order to graduate.

DNP Scholarly Project

Scholarly Project

The Professional Doctorate Scholarly Practice Project prepares students to 1) synthesize knowledge gained from their educational experience and 2) apply leadership skills in implementing a clinically focused practice or quality improvement project in a clinical setting consistent with the professional degree educational standards. The practice project is completed in a clinical practice setting approved by the Doctoral Program Director following guidelines established by the individual program.

Doctoral Scholarly Projects are developed and completed through a 4-course series spanning four semesters. The course faculty serves as the student(s) project chair. The doctoral projects focus on improving clinical practice and are done in conjunction with a clinical site. Projects are evaluated by an advisory committee that includes the chair, an expert from the clinical site, and one additional full-time faculty member academically prepared in the program’s specialty focus. The clinical expert’s role is to assist the student in accessing the necessary clinical site resources, mentoring the student in the clinical area, and providing feedback to the chair and student regarding the student’s project. The chair is responsible for directing the students’ progress toward completion of the project and evaluating the project outcome in consultation with the advisory committee. Students work with their chair to identify advisory committee members in the second year of the program and in the first year of the Post-Master’s DNP program.

Students identify a clinical practice problem in collaboration with the chair and advisory committee, propose a workplan for a quality improvement project related to the clinical problem, implement the project, and disseminate the outcome(s). If the project requires approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), a research protocol application must be submitted for approval prior to implementing the project. All students will present an oral presentation and submit a written project outcomes report. The oral examination is met through presenting the project to an audience, which can include a verbal or poster presentation to a professional meeting, a clinical organization, or to an audience of students and faculty. The written report will conform to the SQUIRE guidelines for reporting quality improvement initiatives. The chair, with input from the advisory committee, provides feedback on the quality improvement workplan and evaluates the final project presentation. After successful completion, a copy of the written report will be submitted to Atkins Library’s Niner Commons. The Project Completion Form is submitted to the Graduate School at the completion of the project.

Projects may be completed as individual projects or in groups of two or three based on the type of project proposed, the clinical issue being addressed, and approval by the chair. Projects completed in small groups must share the same goals and objectives and be designed and conducted across different practice settings or population groups so that each student provides their own unique contribution to the overall project implementation. Each student’s contribution should be able to stand on its own in the event other students in the group are unable to complete their portion of the project. Students will present their implementation design to the course faculty and chair with input from the advisory committee before being allowed to proceed with the project. Students working in groups will present their oral and written presentations as a group.

Students and faculty working on projects, are encouraged to use resources such as the Authorship Agreement available through UNC Charlotte’s Authorship Project in outlining student’s and faculty roles in the project and through its dissemination.

Advisory Committee

All students must have an advisory committee to evaluate their doctoral scholarly project. This committee includes the chair, an expert from the clinical site, and one additional full-time faculty member academically prepared in the program’s specialty focus. Faculty serving on the advisory committee must hold terminal degrees and be eligible to be appointed as Regular or Associate members of the Graduate Faculty. The Chair must be a full-time faculty member within the doctoral program.

Details regarding the scholarly project are available in the DNP Student Handbook.

Student Handbooks

The policies and procedures guiding the program, progression, and expectations can be found in the Graduate Student and DNP Student Handbooks. Clinical concentrations may have additional handbooks related to clinical performance and expectations.

Time Limits for Degree Completion

All graduation requirements must be completed within 6 years after enrollment in the first course.

Transfer Credit

DNP students may transfer up to 6 graduate credit hours (with a grade of B or above) with approval of the DNP Graduate Program Director. No course being transferred may be older than 6 years at the time of graduation.