The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program of the Loma Linda University School of Nursing, Nurse Anesthesia Concentration offers a didactically front-loaded, 39-month, full-time graduate curriculum designed to educate critical care registered nurses in the nurse anesthetist role across the lifespan. The program's curriculum follows the American Academy of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice and the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs' (COA) Practice Doctorate Standards for Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Programs. It consists of graduate-level core nursing courses, nurse anesthesia concentration courses, clinical courses and DNP practice inquire project courses. It is designed to move students from foundational content through concepts and principles necessary for practice to a clinical practicum sequence for learning and refining of professional clinical practice.
The program is fully accredited by the COA as a Distance Education Program and has been designed to take advantage of available distance education technologies to enhance curriculum effectiveness and flexibility. Courses are delivered via both traditional classroom and hybrid distance education formats. As a result, the first 2 quarters of the program are entirely hybrid in design with the exception of the quarterly Seminar Week. The remainder of the program follows a more traditional format, utilizing distance education technologies to enhance course effectiveness.
The CRNA program commences in the Fall Quarter of each year and students are admitted annually. Students are strongly advised not to work throughout this rigorous program.


