From new programs to enrollment expansions, hospitals and universities are racing to build a CRNA pipeline that the healthcare system increasingly depends on.
1. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and St. Cloud, Minn.-based CentraCare partnered to expand the school’s Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesiology. The two organizations launched a new location for the program in St. Cloud, Minn., creating one of the first programs in the state that is specifically designed to support rural healthcare needs
2. Peoria, Ill.-based Methodist College is establishing a certified registered nurse anesthetist program to help address staffing shortages.
3. The University of Toledo (Ohio) earned full accreditation for its Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesia Program. The program continues the nurse anesthesia education previously offered at Sylvania, Ohio-based Lourdes University, which closed at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.