New nursing anesthesia program earns accreditation

A new graduate program in the School of Nursing has begun training nurses for careers as certified registered nurse anesthetists. 

The program earned accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs in January 2024. It is the first program of its kind in New Mexico and one of only a few in the Southwest. 

The program encompasses a three-year curriculum of didactic courses and requires students to complete a minimum of 2,400 hours of supervised clinical training. Students who graduate from program will earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice in nurse anesthesiology and become qualified to take a national certification exam administered by the National Board of Certification and Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists. 

Before the program launched at NMSU, New Mexico students interested in the field often left the state to pursue their education. The closest programs were hundreds of miles away in central Texas and Arizona.