VCU Nurse Anesthesia receives grant for Advanced Education Nursing

By Malorie Burkett

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Nurse Anesthesia has received first-year funding of a three-year, $500,000 Advanced Education Nursing Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration.

VCU, which has the No. 1-ranked nurse anesthesia program in the country, along with the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, will use the grant to expand and enhance the number and preparation of certified registered nurse anesthetists working in rural and underserved communities.

Michael D. Fallacaro, D.N.S., professor and chair of the Department of Nurse Anesthesia, will serve as the principal investigator, working alongside Rachel Fowlkes, director of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.

Through distance education, two-way video and web-casting technologies, VCU graduate students will receive anesthesia education broadcast from Richmond while physically located in Abingdon. According to Fallacaro, grant funding will enable VCU to increase its number of graduate students from 72 to 96 over a three-year period.

“The majority of this growth will be in accepting students from medically underserved areas of the Commonwealth and delivering curriculum to these more remote regions,” said Fallacaro. “The intent is that once educated, these graduate students will remain and practice as anesthetists in their home communities in and around Appalachia where health care needs are great.”

Fallacaro said certified registered nurse anesthetists provide critical services in rural areas, but a national shortage of the professionals creates greater challenges to providing adequate health care services in medically underserved areas across the nation.

“The consequences of the shortage for small hospitals can be dire and small hospitals are unable to provide anesthesia services without nurse anesthetists,” he said. “Some hospitals are forced to cut back on elective surgeries and close some of their operating rooms, and patients may have to travel long distances to access the healthcare services they need.”

Established in 1969, the VCU Department of Nurse Anesthesia was the first in the country to offer a master's degree in the discipline. U.S. News and World Report ranks VCU’s Nurse Anesthesia graduate program No.1. Partners for the program include the VCU, Bon Secours and HCA health systems.