Nurse Anesthesia Program FAQs When is the deadline for application? The deadline for application and all supporting materials is July 1 st. Materials and applications are accepted year round. Who do I contact if I have questions regarding my application? Please contact Graduate Nursing Academic Support Coordinator, Kristen Suther via email at Kristen.Suther@ololcollege.edu or via phone at 225 214 6971. Do you accept unofficial transcripts? May I submit transcripts to the University myself? All transcripts must be official. The applicant may submit a transcript if it is official and in a sealed envelope from the institution. Do I submit my application and supporting materials at one time? May I submit my materials as they are available? Supporting materials and the application may be submitted as complete and as they become available. The program encourages applicants to submit materials as early as possible to allow for timely evaluation of application materials. What degree program does Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University offer? The nurse anesthesia program at OFranciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University offers a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesia Degree (DNP NA). The DNP NA degree curriculum requires the completion of 100 credit hours, including a final scholarly project, anesthesia lab experience with high fidelity simulation and task trainers, and 2800 clinical hours over 36 months of continuous full time study. After the first two semesters the program requires continuous didactic and clinical instruction to provide the requisite number of anesthesia cases, classroom hours, and clinical hours for each student. The program is composed of sequential and integrated courses designed to facilitate achievement of its terminal objectives and outcomes. Are there any prerequisite courses I must complete prior to admission? No. There are no prerequisite courses that must be taken prior to admission into the program. If I have yet to obtain my bachelor in nursing degree, will I be granted an interview? No. Applicants must have obtained their bachelor of science in nursing degree in order to meet the admission requirements. What types of critical care experience is accepted? Which is preferred? Critical care experience must be obtained in a critical care area within the United States, its territories or a U.S. military hospital outside of the United States. During this experience, the registered professional nurse should have developed critical decision making and psychomotor skills, competency in patient assessment, and the ability to use and interpret advanced monitoring techniques. A critical care area is defined as one where, on a routine basis, the
registered professional nurse manages one or more of the following: invasive hemodynamic monitors (such as pulmonary artery catheter, CVP, arterial); cardiac assist devices; mechanical ventilation; and vasoactive infusions. Examples of critical care units may include but are not limited to: Surgical Intensive Care, Cardiothoracic Intensive care, Coronary Intensive Care, and Medical Intensive Care. Those who have experiences in other areas may be considered provided they can demonstrate competence with managing unstable patients, invasive monitoring, ventilators, and critical care pharmacology. (Taken from Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs Definition) Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Universitys Nurse Anesthesia Program requires recent adult critical care experience. Recent is defined as within the previous two calendar years. How much adult critical care experience is required for admission? Applicants must have one year of critical care at the time of application. The nurse anesthesia program admissions committee recommends two years of critical care experience. If I am not a Louisiana resident, do I have to obtain a Louisiana nursing license prior to applying to the program? Applicants must have a current, unencumbered license to practice as a registered nurse (RN) in any state with eligibility for licensure in Louisiana to be eligible for admission into the program. Upon acceptance into the program, candidates must obtain a Louisiana RN license prior to the start of January classes. Do I have to have any additional certifications or licenses? Applicants must have current ACLS and BLS at the time of application. Upon acceptance and enrollment into the program, students will obtain PALS certification during program orientation. How many students are accepted each year? The number of students accepted each year depends on the applicant pool. Typically 30 35 students are accepted per admission cycle with approximately 80 120 applications received each year. Can I still work as a nurse when I begin classes in January? Yes. The curriculum is designed to allow students to work for the first two semesters while they are enrolled in online courses. We expect our students to continue bed side nursing until they begin the traditional, on campus experience in August. If I have any additional questions, who should I contact? Please email any additional questions to Fran U Nurse Anesthesia Program Director, Aimee Badeaux at aimee.badeaux@ololcollege.edu
What is your program s clinical site assignment process? Student rotations are assigned by the Nurse Anesthesia Program Assistant Program Director and are centered on enhancing the student s clinical learning experience. Prior to the start of the clinical portion of the program, students will request clinical site preference based on housing availability. Students receive a tentative rotation schedule for their entire clinical experience during the first semester of clinical attendance. Clinical sites and rotations are subject to change due to factors outside of the program s control. All students will not rotate to all sites. The varying clinical sites are necessary to fulfill the clinical requirements as set forth by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. When possible, students will receive HRSA Nurse Anesthesia Traineeship Grant funds to offset travel to clinical sites. What are your current clinical sites? The Nurse Anesthesia Program seeks to enter into partnerships with clinical sites that enhance student learning. Clinical sites are obtained to provide students with unique clinical experiences and are designated as a Required or Enrichment Clinical Site. All sites must receive approval by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs prior to the placement of students at the site. Required Clinical Site: A required site is a primary clinical site that meets one or both of the following criteria: An institution (1) where students receive 50% or more of their total clinical experience and/or (2) that is necessary to enable a program to meet the Council's standards. Enrichment Clinical Site: An enrichment site is a nonprimary clinical site that meets one or more of the following criteria: an institution (1) where students receive less than 50 percent of their total clinical experiences; (2) that is not necessary to enable a program to meet the Council s standards; (3) that is unlikely to have a significant impact on a program s ability to continue complying with accreditation standards and policy/procedural requirements; and/or (4) that is utilized solely as an enriching experience. To provide optimal learning experiences, students rotate to the facility for a two month rotation. Approved Clinical Sites Required o Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge, LA Enrichment o Acadia General Hospital, Crowley, LA o East Jefferson General Hospital, Metairie, LA o Lafayette General Regional Medical Center, Lafayette, LA o Lane Regional Medical Center, Zachary, LA o New Iberia Medical Center, New Iberia, LA o New Iberia Surgical Center, New Iberia, LA o Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, McComb, MS o Orthopedic Surgical Center, Baton Rouge, LA o Our Lady of the Lake Perkins Surgical Center, Baton Rouge, LA o Woman s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA
Your program only has one required clinical site. Can you please tell me a little more about the site? How many anesthesia learners does it support? Our Lady of the Lake includes a Regional Medical Center, dedicated Children s Hospital, 300 Provider Physician Group network and free standing emergency room in Livingston parish. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is a private not for profit 800 bed hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, committed to building a healthy community through excellence in patient care and education. A part of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, Our Lady of the Lake is consistently awarded for compassionate care, clinical expertise, leading edge technology and innovation. Our Lady of the Lake is recognized in the areas of trauma and emergency care, stroke, heart & vascular, cancer care and minimally invasive procedures and more. Our Lady of the Lake serves 45,000 inpatients and 350,000 outpatients annually. (OLOLRMC Website) Currently there are approximately 48 anesthetizing locations within Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center that includes: o 18 Main Operating Rooms (services: general surgery, bariatric surgery, robot assisted procedures, urology, nephrology, neurosurgical, ear nose and throat) o 12 Tower Operating Rooms (services: orthopedics, pediatrics, otolaryngology, ear nose and throat, ophthalmology) o 2 Tower Procedure Rooms (pediatric dental procedures, pediatrics endoscopy procedures) o 6 Heart and Vascular Tower Operating Rooms (services: cardiovascular, thoracic, and vascular surgery) o 2 Electrophysiology Suites (Convergent procedures, Ablations, TAVRs) o 3 Endoscopy Rooms o Other areas: Imaging (CT, MRI, special procedures) o Flex areas: Cardiac catheterization lab Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University s Nurse Anesthesia Program students are the only anesthesia student learners at the site. What is the HRSA Grant you mentioned to support travel to rural clinical sites? For several years the program has applied and received funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship (NAT) grant program. NAT Grants are awarded to accredited institutions that educate registered nurses to become nurse anesthetists; recipient institutions, in turn, disburse funds to students in the form of traineeship support. Traineeships will pay full or partial costs of the tuition, books/e books, fees, and the reasonable living expenses (stipends) of trainees during the period for which the traineeship is provided. The program utilizes HRSA NAT grant funding to allow for expanded clinical rotations in rural and underserved areas where students are supervised by practitioners seasoned in the delivery of rural health care. Such rural clinical rotations expose the student learner to the importance of rural health care access, potentially increasing the number of graduates that go on to practice in rural and underserved areas. By offering financial assistance via grant funding, the expenses incurred by the student for rural clinical education and experiences can be partially offset.
Please tell me about your faculty? What are your student to instructor ratios? The program has a diverse program faculty to include CRNAs and noncrnas with various educational backgrounds and areas of expertise. CRNA faculty members teach all anesthesia related content within the program and are responsible for oversight of the clinical aspect of the program. NonCRNA faculty members teach courses appropriate to their educational background and content expertise (i.e. Faculty member with a PhD in Physiology teaches the Anatomy, Physiology and Pathophysiology courses). Typically one faculty member teaches face to face or traditional courses while online courses are taught by two faculty members. The ratio for traditional classroom experiences is 1 faculty member to 30 35 students (1:35 maximum), while online is 1: 15 (1:18 maximum) and simulation laboratory experiences is 1:4 (1:5 maximum). Do you have a simulation lab? Yes. The Anesthesia Skills and Simulation Lab is approximately 1800 square feet and adjoins the dedicated nurse anesthesia classroom. The lab has recently undergone a large renovation to include the addition of a control room with new audio and visual video equipment. The lab also has recently added two new Laerdal SimMan full body high fidelity simulators and two GE Healthcare Aisys anesthesia machines. The new equipment joins existing simulation equipment to include: one Laerdal SimBaby high fidelity simulator, one Laerdal SimJunior high fidelity simulator, two anesthesia machines, three neuraxial anesthesia task trainers, two arterial line task trainers, three central line task trainers with ultrasound capabilities, one femoral nerve block task trainer, one ultrasound machine, ten intubation task trainers and two flexible fiberoptic scope, ultrasound IV insertion trainers, and two McGrath enhanced direct laryngoscopes. The Anesthesia Skills and Simulation Lab is solely used by nurse anesthesia students. Students use the lab throughout their educational experience to include a dedicated 16 week Skills and Simulation course during the fourth semester of the program. What does the DNP Project include? The DNP scholarly project demonstrates mastery of the DNP curricular content. The scholarly project demonstrates the student s ability to identify a practice or system related problem through clinical immersion, synthesize and critically appraise the evidence related to addressing that practice problem, negotiate within the system to implement sustainable evidence based change within an organization, implement that change, and systematically measure the results of the practice or system related change initiative. The DNP scholarly project documents outcomes of the student s educational experiences, and summarizes the student s growth in knowledge and expertise. Will I need to complete a DNP Portfolio? Yes. The DNP Portfolio reflects outcome attainment of the DNP NA Degree Program Graduate Learning Outcomes and the DNP Essentials (AACN, 2006) and demonstrates professional growth as an advanced practice nurse. The DNP Portfolio is a progressive project with assignments
initiated early in the DNP NA curriculum and is maintained throughout the program. The DNP portfolio is evaluated by faculty members on an intermittent basis and upon completion of the program. The DNP portfolio is maintained in an electronic format. What is your NCE first time pass rate? Since the August 2005 inception of the Master of Science of Nurse Anesthesia program there have been 263 graduates. Of these 263 graduates, 255 passed the NCE on the first attempt (97%) with the remaining eight students passing the exam on the second attempt. All graduates have been employed within six months of graduation and indicate the program prepared them to function as competent anesthesia providers. The graduating class of 2016 had a 90.9% first time pass rate on the NCE and a 100% second time pass rate on the NCE. Our program s pass rate is consistently higher than the national average pass rate.