Published
After reading the new AANA educational program policies and hearing about the renewed interest in increasing doctorate prepared nurse anesthetists (both clinical and PhD), I am curious what doctorate options for nurse anesthetists are currently available.
Are there any doctorate programs that focus specifically on anesthesia, pharmacology, biology etc, or must you participate in a more generalized nursing science program.?
If you are telling me that these classes are not "fluff" then you need to explain their relevance.Health Policy, Legal & Ethical Dimensions of Practice
Epidemiology for the Health Professions
Informatics for Advanced Nursing Practice
I disagree with you. While these classes may not help me "practice" anesthesia any better, I do think they serve a beneficial purpose. If I were going to school only to be trained in the technical aspects of my profession, then I guess that's what I would be.....a tech. These classes are included in the cirriculum of most programs, not because they help me perform better anesthesia, but because they make me a more well-rounded, educated professional. And if you think that ethics and health policy do not impact your practice on some level, I think you are sorely mistaken. Just my two cents!!!
I disagree with you. While these classes may not help me "practice" anesthesia any better, I do think they serve a beneficial purpose. If I were going to school only to be trained in the technical aspects of my profession, then I guess that's what I would be.....a tech. These classes are included in the cirriculum of most programs, not because they help me perform better anesthesia, but because they make me a more well-rounded, educated professional. And if you think that ethics and health policy do not impact your practice on some level, I think you are sorely mistaken. Just my two cents!!!
I agree with turtle. First of all, there are more legal and ethical situations than you can imagine in the nurse anesthetist profession. The astute practitioner needs to know how to practice within the legal and ethical framework and to handle those issues on a daily basis. While I am in favor of an emphasis on the hard sciences, an intellectually and socially well rounded person does better in this high stress profession. The only course in current masters programs that I think is fairly useless is Nursing Theory.
Yoga CRNA
Well said,turtle.
Mike I think you looking at things far too simplistically. Ethics for the most part isn't so much black and white but many shades of gray. Being a professional, especially at the na level, requires one to think more globally at times and this requires a fairly rounded education and world experience. Sure one can be a geek and concentrate solely on the hard sciences, but ethical considerations require more than science. Granted, the thought of more nursing theory, etc. is a bit nauseated and I am sure in a year or so I'll be eating these words, but I do have some appreciation of why I have to take them and although they may not have any immediate impact on my daily practice, at some point in time I will go "oh yeah, I remember....". No such thing as a wasted class...something can be used somewhere at some time.
ray
well ill be taking them so it will be interesting to see what they can teach me that i havent already encountered about ethics in the last 10 years.
Its a req. for the MSN so it has to be done. There were similar classes in the BScN which were reqs. but happened to be exactly what i expected, useless past the final exam. Maybe the grad classes with almost identicle names will be different. Only time will tell!
MmacFN
556 Posts
Nitecap
Well said.