Clinical Education Opportunities

Our School of Nurse Anesthesia enjoys enthusiastic support from Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and our local clinical affiliate hospitals:

• Truman Medical Center Lakewood
• Children's Mercy Hospital
• Saint Joseph Health Center
• Harry S. Truman VA Hospital  (Columbia, MO)
• Heartland Regional Medical Center  (St.Joseph, MO)
• Moberly Regional Medical Center  (Moberly, MO)
• Lake Regional Medical Center  (Osage Beach, MO)
  

Students utilize these institutions in order to complete their clinical and didactic requirements.  There are no additional affiliation costs.

Nurse Anesthesia students participate in anesthesia care for all the surgical specialties, including general surgery, plastic surgery, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, oncology, thoracic and vascular surgery, and neurosurgery.

Due to the very active oral and maxillofacial surgery and head and neck surgical services, students have the opportunity to manage difficult airway problems in patients with conditions such as facial abscess, Ludwig's angina, trismus, maxillo-mandibular skeletal deformities, and postoperative/post-radiation airway pathologies.

The importance of pre- and postoperative care is stressed in the program. Students perform pre-anesthetic history and physical assessments along with reviews of relevant lab data and document this in patient charts. Pre-anesthetic medication orders are written by the student under the supervision of an anesthesiologist. Post-anesthetic visits are also assigned and documented.

Housing & Travel
Students may be required to travel to clinical sites outside of the Kansas City area. If drive time to a clinical site exceeds 90 minutes from Truman Medical Center, housing will be provided at that site at no cost to the student.

Students take in-house call with the clinical faculty 3 to 4 times a month throughout the program. Students learn how to manage the anesthesia care for emergency surgical and obstetrical patients under the direct supervision of a CRNA clinical instructor, and participate in the management of Code Blues and emergency airway procedures. These experiences include awake nasal and oral intubations on patients in the intensive care units and emergency room, as well as intubations for patients with cervical spine fractures and head trauma.

The Level I Trauma Center at TMC allows students the opportunity to become skilled in the management of anesthesia for trauma surgery. Multiple-trauma cases facilitate a "team" approach to anesthesia management for these complex cases. Together, emergency room, surgery, and anesthesia personnel integrate their specialties to provide continuity of care from the moment the patient arrives, through surgery and stabilization in the intensive care unit.

Regional anesthesia techniques are taught in the classroom, as well as in the clinical area. Students receive extensive experience in the administration of spinal, brachial plexus, epidural, interscalene, and intravenous techniques, as well as intraoperative management.

The clinical experiences available to students are rich and diverse - over 4,000 procedures are performed annually in TMC's operating rooms, providing a generous geriatric experience, emergencies and trauma. More than 26% of the procedures are performed on ASA Class III or above patients. As a High Risk Pregnancy Center, the obstetrics department handles approximately 2,500 deliveries each year.

The pediatric rotation at Children's Mercy Hospital provides nurse anesthesia students with one of the most extensive pediatric experiences in the country.

While at  Harry S. Truman VA Hospital, students acquire the knowledge and hands-on skills necessary for placement and management of arterial lines, CVP lines, and pulmonary artery catheters as well as the anesthetic management of open-heart and vascular/thoracic procedures.