[jollyjenny]

Hello everyone!

I live in Texas and there are 2 schools in Dallas and 2 schools in Houston that offer the program. I live in San Antonio and there are quite a few large schools, but none of them offer the NA program. What does it take for a school to start a new program? I spoke with someone at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio about this, and she said they used to have the program in the 90s, but for some reason they discontinued it. Is it a lack of qualified instructors, maybe? Anyway, there is also the University of the Incarnate Word, a private university, that has many great programs, but not NA. I want to become a CRNA so bad, but to move my family too far away would keep me from doing it. Too much of a sacrafice, I guess.

Is there anything I could do, perhaps, to give these universities the idea of starting the NA program? Maybe start a petition? Bug them to death? I know I wouldn't be the first person to inquire about this. From what I hear, the competition is so fierce, and there aren't enough schools to accomodate everyone. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is what I gather. I just wonder why this is.

[Just a CRNA]

Both Texas Wesleyan University and Texas Christian University are located in Fort Worth, not Dallas.

[GregRN]

We have the same issue here in Colorado. There are plenty of hospitals in and around Denver, but no CRNA program exists. Why not? Placements. Pure and simple. Most colleges can create the curriculum, find qualified instructors and would have plenty of interested students. Many already have all this. But if hospitals are unwilling or unable to find placements in their facility, then you have no program.

Here in Colorado, anesthesiologists have a pretty big thumb on the profession. They control who, what, where and when anesthesia is given, much to the detriment of the patient; it seems every couple years or so an article comes out in mainstream media regarding the shortage of qualified anesthesia providers, especially in Denver proper. Many anesthesiologists are heading out to the suburbs: better hours, better pay, better lifestyle. That leaves many of the "urban" hospitals (Trauma I's even) scrambling to find anesthesia providers in order to do surgery. Cases are often moved, delayed and cancelled due to the shortage. The anesthesiologists' solution to the shortage? They have named the governor of Colorado in a lawsuit to preven Colorado from "opting out" of Medicare cases and allowing CRNA's independent status for practicing anesthesia. These are the same people who give the placements at the hospitals that would allow CRNA programs to exist in Colorado, therefore lessening the shortage and providing desperately needed services to our patients. That's harsh.

My take: it's going to take someone with no alliance to anesthesiologists to get it rolling. Either an administrator at a hospital who sees the revenue being crapped away will mandate this, or legislation at the government level to give incentives to hospitals to open up placements. Either way, I think it will have to be a "top down" approach in this state to make it happen.

JJ, I suspect this may be the case in your area of Texas. With the number of colleges and interested students in San Antonio, and people across the country who would go to school in S.A. for that matter, I would be the difficulty lies in getting the placements.