Supporting the Foundation of Nurse Anesthesia Education: A Report of the Faculty Stabilization Taskforce

Without highly qualified educators and educational program administrators, the ability to provide anesthesia and pain management services throughout the healthcare system will be threatened by the inadequate supply of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). The average turnover rate between the years 2016-2020, for CRNA program administrators, was 15% with some programs changing leadership as often as every two to four years. In response, the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) and the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA) created the Faculty Stabilization Taskforce (FSTF) to review reasons for the high turnover rate and to develop methods and tools to support program faculty and administrators in their role of educating the future CRNA workforce. The FSTF provided two recommendations: 1) to create a robust faculty development program for all faculty at all levels of CRNA education, and 2) to create a repository of information needed to administrate, and educate students, in a high-quality CRNA program. This article summarizes the report made to the AANA Board of Directors (BOD) which was unanimously accepted and is already being implemented by AANA and COA staff. The full text of the report can be found on the AANA's website at www.aana.com/FSTF.