KANSAS HOSPITALS TRAIN STUDENTS FROM THREE DIFFERENT UNIVERSITIES

The University of Kansas 

KU Medical Center
3901 Rainbow Blvd.
Kansas City, KS 66160-7604

newman university 

3100 McCormick Ave.

Wichita, KS 67213

Texas weslesan university 

(Clinical sites in Wichita, Topeka, and rural Kansas)

1201 Wesleyan

Fort Worth, Texas 76105-1536

The minimum education and experience required to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) include:

• A baccalaureate or graduate degree in nursing or other appropriate major.
• An unencumbered license as a registered professional nurse and/or APRN in the United States or its territories.
• A minimum of one year full-time work experience, or its part-time equivalent, as a registered nurse in a critical care setting. The average experience of RNs entering nurse anesthesia educational programs is 2.9 years.
• Graduation with a minimum of a master’s degree from a nurse anesthesia educational program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA). As of November 2025, there were 153 accredited nurse anesthesia programs in the United States and Puerto Rico, using more than 2819 active clinical sites.  All nurse anesthesia programs are approved to award doctoral degrees for entry into practice.
• Nurse anesthesia programs range from 36-51 months, depending on university requirements. Programs include clinical settings and experiences. Graduates of nurse anesthesia educational programs have an average of 9,369 hours of clinical experience.

It takes a minimum of 7-8.5 calendar years of education and experience to prepare a CRNA.

Nearly 3000 student registered nurse anesthetists graduate each year and go on to pass the National Certification Examination to become CRNAs.  The present day workforce numbers over 68,000 CRNAs compared to 60,000 anesthesiologists.

Historical Background

Nurse anesthetists have provided anesthesia care to patients in the United States for more than 150 years and were among the first specialty nurses to require continuing education. The first organized program in nurse anesthesia education was offered in 1909.

 Nurses first provided anesthesia on the battlefields of the American Civil War. During World War I, nurse anesthetists became the predominant providers of anesthesia care to wounded soldiers on the front lines.

The Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA/nurse anesthesiologist) credential came into existence in 1956 and in 1986 CRNAs/nurse anesthesiologists became the first nursing specialty accorded direct reimbursement rights from Medicare. In 2001, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the federal physician supervision rule for nurse anesthetists to allow state governors to opt out of this facility reimbursement requirement.

Today, CRNAs/nurse anesthesiologists have full practice authority in every branch of the military and are the primary providers of anesthesia care to U.S. military personnel on the front lines, navy ships, and aircraft evacuation teams around the globe.