Your Inquiry to Rush University College of Nursing

Saturday, February 5, 2011 7:00 PM

From:
"Rush University Admissions" <[email protected]>

Dear Nisreen,

Thank you for your interest in the Rush Nurse Anesthesia graduate program.
I encourage you to open and review the attached document below. It contains
useful and detailed information about Rush's top rated nurse anesthesia
program.

The Rush College of Nursing website also contains current and detailed
information about college programming, services and resources. If you would
still like hard copy admission information mailed to you, please forward
this e-mail to [email protected] and type into the subject line
Requesting Info and Your Name.

Once you have reviewed our information, if you have any additional
questions, I invite you to contact me to discuss our program and your career
and academic goals.

Sincerely,

Judith Wiley, DNP, CRNA

Department of Adult Health Nursing
[email protected]
312-942-2751 312-942-2751

Rush University College of Nursing

Nurse Anesthesia Program
FAQ Sheet

Program Length & Degree Awarded:

Thank you for your interest in Rush’s nurse anesthesia program. Our current program is 27 months
long. Students successfully completing the program will be awarded an MSN degree. The College
of Nursing is planning to move to a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree for the CRNA, CNS and NP
programs within the next few years. At this point we are not sure of the date. When the program
moves to the DNP it will be a minimum of 36 months of full time study. The application criteria
may also be different than those of the MSN. Please check the College of Nursing website
(http://www.rushu.rush.edu/nursing) periodically for more information.

Application Deadline:
The application is completed on line. The URL is found at the end of this FAQ sheet. The
application dead line is July 1st. However, you are strongly encouraged to turn in the application 1
or 2 months prior to the application deadline so that any deficiencies (missing transcripts, for

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example) may be remedied prior to the application deadline. Remember it takes a minimum of 4
weeks to receive GRE results after the exam has been taken. If you meet admission criteria you will
be interviewed in August or September. For the application to be considered complete ALL
materials must be RECEIVED by the Admissions office by the application deadline. If the
application is not compete on the deadline the program reserves the right not to consider it.

Class size & Admission Process:

Each year a class of 24 is admitted. Several individuals will also be on a wait list. Applicants will
find out the status of your application no later than mid-November. A deposit is required to hold a
seat in the incoming class. If the deposit is not received by the deadline the next individual on the
wait list may be contacted and offered the seat.

Because receipt of application materials or the deposit is required by a deadline, the applicant is
advised to utilized an delivery service such as Federal Express or UPS since envelopes are delivered
directly to the Admissions office and because there are tracking services available with these
carriers. (US mail first goes to the hospital mailroom and then is delivered to the Admissions office
so the delivery of materials could be delayed.)

Mailing Address:
Armour Academic Center
600 S. Paulina Street, Suite 440
Chicago, IL 60612

Program Start Date:

Anesthesia classes begin Summer Quarter, the following June. Successful applicants are strongly
encouraged to begin taking classes Winter or Spring Quarter prior to the start of the anesthesia
sequence of courses in Summer Quarter (June).

Admission Criteria:
· Completion of the Application
· Completion of a Bachelor’s degree (does not have to be a BSN)
· Submission of an Essay discussing your interest in Nurse Anesthesia practice, your
professional goals and how graduate education will help you achieve those goals
· Submission of your résumé
· An overall undergraduate GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
· An undergraduate nursing GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
· An Graduate GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (if applicable)
· Completion of the Graduate Record Exam
· A copy of your RN license (For the application your license does not have to be from
Illinois.)
· A copy of your BLS (CPR) card
· A copy of your ACLS card
· A copy of your PALS card
· A minimum of 1 year of recent fulltime experience as an RN in an adult ICU at the time of
the application deadline (Two years of recent fulltime ICU experience as an RN at the
application deadline is strongly preferred. To be more competitive it is advisable to be
currently working in the ICU at the time of application.)

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 · Official copies of transcripts from ALL colleges or universities you have attended post-high
school (even if you only registered for one course at an institution and did not complete it).
If the degree was issued by a foreign university or college the transcripts must be evaluated
by a recognized service. Please contact the Admissions Department for additional
information. (See below for contact information).
· Three recommendations (One from your nurse manager, the other 2 from clinicians who
know your clinical skills & judgment – for example a CNS, nurse educator, your preceptor,
your charge nurse, a physician you work closely with, or a CRNA you have worked with.
Recommendations cannot come from another staff RN.)
· The TOEFL exam is required if either your high school or college were completed in a
foreign country and/or if English is not your native language.

Required Clinical Experience:

The nurse anesthesia program at Rush defines ICU experience as that obtained in an intensive care
unit or cardiac care unit. We do not have a preference of one type of intensive care unit over another
(medical vs. surgical vs. neuro vs. burn/trauma vs. CV). The program does NOT consider the
recovery room, emergency department, telemetry units, step-down units, invasive radiology units,
the operating room or the cath lab to be intensive care units. In recent years the applicant pool has
been extremely competitive. Most, but not all, successful applicants in the last several years have
had between 3 and 4 years of ICU experience on the application deadline.

GRE Scores:
To be competitive your GRE scores should be at least Verbal 450, Quantitative 450 and Analytic
(or the sum of Verbal plus Quantitative should be 900 or more) with a Writing score of 3.5 or
higher. Preparation for the GRE is recommended. Your can prepare with one of the many books,
computer programs or classes available. We do not recommend one book, computer program or
course over any of the others. More information about the GRE, including practice exams, can be
found at http://www.ets.org/gre/.

If you have taken the GRE in the past, that score may be utilized. Please note that ETS retains GRE
scores for 5 years. However, if you have an original copy of the report you received you may
submit it in lieu of retaking the GRE. If you no longer have an original copy of your GRE scores
you will need to retake the GRE.

Time Commitment:
The nurse anesthesia program is a full time program. The national average committed time for nurse
anesthesia students is 67 hours per week. The time commitment for the program at Rush is similar.
It can be decreased for the first 3 quarters of the first year by taking classes early (see below). Even
if you have taken classes prior to the start of the program, beginning with the fourth quarter of the
first year of the program you should expect your time commitment to the program to be
approximately 60 to 65 hours per week. That time commitment will remain constant throughout the
remainder of the program.

Graduate Classes:
Many applicants take graduate courses prior to their application and admission to the nurse
anesthesia program. This serves several purposes. First, it establishes that you can successfully
complete graduate level classes. This is especially important if your undergraduate grades or your
GRE scores are not what you would like them to be. Second, should you be admitted, it decreases

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the number of courses you would take per quarter for the first 3 quarters of the first year of the
program. Successfully completing graduate course work prior to applying to the anesthesia program
may also make your application more competitive.

The College of Nursing only allows a student-at-large to take 12 quarter hours of classes. (A
student-at-large is someone who is not admitted to any program in the College of Nursing.) Twelve
quarter hours usually equates to 3 or 4 classes. After that, to continue to take classes at Rush a
student must be admitted to one of the graduate nursing programs. Many RNs who want to take
more than 12 quarter hours of classes prior to applying to the nurse anesthesia program apply to the
MSN Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program. GREs are NOT required to take classes as a student-
at-large. They MAY NOT be required to be admitted to the MSN Clinical Nurse Leader Program.
The application deadline for the CNL is October 1st to begin the following Spring Quarter and April
1st to begin the following Fall Quarter. If you are cannot meet these deadlines, classes may be taken
as a student-at-large.

The following courses may be taken prior to applying to the nurse anesthesia program:

NUR 501 Theory*

NRS 502A Role**
NRS510 Biostatistics*
NUR 521 Research**
NRS 522 Health Promotion**
NRS 529 Advanced Pharmacology*
NRS 546 Pain Seminar**@
NRS 551 Adv. Physiology I*
NRS 552 Adv. Physiology II*@
NRS 554 Adv. Pathophysiology I*@
NRS 555 Adv. Pathophysiology II*
IDS 505 Interdisciplinary Palliative Care*****
ANA 500 Neurobiology***@
and NRS 503 Physical Assessment****# .

*The following classes may be taken in either an on-line or on-site format.

**The following classes are only offered in either an on-line or compressed weekend format.
***The following class is only offered in an on-site format.
****The following class may be in a partially on-line format with some on-site clinicals or in a
completely on-site format.
*****The following class is only offered in an on-line format with several days on-site in the
simulation lab or clinical area.
@
These courses are required by the nurse anesthesia program but not by other programs, although they
may be taken by students in other College of Nursing programs.
#
To take this class you must be admitted to one of the college's graduate nursing programs, but not
necessarily the nurse anesthesia program.

Other Information:
· College of Nursing Homepage
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/nursing/
· Entry Level Nurse Anesthesia Program and Program of Study

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 http://www.rushu.rush.edu/servlet/Satellite?
c=RushUnivLevel4Page&cid=1222091409137&pagename=Rush
%2FRushUnivLevel4Page%2FLevel_4_College_GME_CME_Page
· Admission Dates
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/nursing/admission.html
· Application
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/nursing/app.html
· Tuition and Fees
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/catalog/tuitionfinaid/tuitionfees.html
· Student at Large Registration Form & Timetable & Academic Calendar
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/registrar/
· American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
http://www.aana.com
· Educational Testing Service (GREs)
http://www.ets.org/gre/
· Educational Testing Service (TOEFLs)
http://www.ets.org/toefl/

Please contact Dr. Judy Wiley at (312) 942-2751 or [email protected] or Dr. Mike Kremer
at (312) 942-6125 or [email protected] if you have additional questions or if you want to
make an appointment to discuss the program.

Information regarding the admission’s process can be obtained from Ms. Angela Mason-Johnson in
the Admissions Department at (312) 942-7100.

Again, thank you for your interest in Rush!