DNP Nurse Anesthesia

The Nurse Anesthesia program fosters professional involvement and socialization through a number of activities. You will become an associate member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, which will acquaint you with the professional organization, its publications and issues of importance to nurse anesthetists.

As part of the educational opportunities afforded by the program, you'll attend meetings of the Connecticut Association of Nurse Anesthetists (CANA) and be encouraged to attend at least one additional conference (AANA annual meeting or Assembly of School Faculty).

Attendance at the Midyear Assembly is included as a lab to complement the Aspects course (NUR 674). A call component is included in the clinical curriculum following the first year.

Clinical conferences are held weekly when the clinical practicum begins to allow you to discuss your experiences at the hospitals and to share them with your classmates. While on clinical rotations, you'll participate in the hospital in-service programs, which might include doing a presentation at a departmental meeting or attending conferences. You also will earn conference hours by presenting at grand rounds and attending classmate presentations. You will take part in a journal club with your colleagues, including reflection, discussion and presentations on your experiences.

The objectives of the DNP program are to prepare graduates for advanced nursing practice who are capable of providing holistic health care for diverse individuals, families or populations in a variety of settings. Specifically, the program seeks to produce graduates who:

1. Demonstrate clinical reasoning through an understanding of science and evidence-based practice.
2. Design, implement and evaluate quality improvement initiatives across the systems in which health care is delivered.
3. Analyze and critique the available evidence for best practices in health care.
4. Apply technology and information fluency to conduct practice inquiry.
5. Advocate for rational health policies to improve patient care and enhance effective use of resources.
6. Demonstrate leadership through interprofessional collaboration to improve patient and population health outcomes.
7. Direct health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve patient and population health outcomes.
8. Provide competent, culturally sensitive and ethically based care to individuals and/or populations in a defined specialty of advanced nursing practice.