Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Programs
(found programs from 108 schools)

Below is a complete list of the nationally accredited (in this case, by AANA/CANAEP) Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) programs.

Sometimes programs are jointly conducted by a university at a specific hospital, and may use the name of that hospital in some of their marketing. Please make sure to check which university operates it as well, since the list below is by university. For example: the Decatur Memorial Hospital Nurse Anesthesia program is the same as Bradley University (listed below).

The CRNA specialization is getting a lot of attention these days, due mainly to the paycheck associated with it. However, you should be aware that these programs are 1) offered by fewer schools than the other types of specialty tracks, 2) competitive (typically require a BSN/Bachelors degree and at least 1 year of acute/critical care nursing experience, to start with), 3) full-time (for 2+ years) and rigorous, and 4) always partially campus based, never fully online.

So: if you are not able to basically leave the workforce for a couple of years to complete your Masters degree, this may not be the right specialty for you.

All CRNA programs in (only states that have them are listed):

What About Online CRNA Programs?

As you can see below, there are over 100 accredited CRNA programs in the US, and none of them are offered online. By comparison, there are over 850 accredited Nurse Practitioner programs, and over 45 of them are offered online.

For clarity: many of the CRNA programs do offer certain courses online. You will not necessarily be required to go to the campus (or the clinical sites) every day. However, we have not found any CRNA programs that are what we would call pure online/distance education programs. There may be permitted clinical sites several hours away from the campus, which makes the program more accessible to people who don’t live next door to the school, but the CRNA specialty just does not seem to lend itself to the full distance learning model, so we erred on the side of caution and did not classify any of the programs below as online.

If you know of an accredited CRNA program that requires no (or almost no) campus time, and lets you pick your own clinical site, by all means please send us an email and let us know, and we’ll add it immediately. We’ll be very grateful, and so will our visitors.

If an online program is the only thing that will work with your schedule, please check out our database of online MSN programs.

What Does A Nurse Anesthetist Actually Do?

Well, it’s not too mysterious. A CRNA puts people to sleep. They do it in all kinds of different healthcare settings, but a couple of interesting facts are that they tend to be the primary providers of anesthesia in rural settings, and they are also the main providers of anesthesia to front-line US troops.

You can find more information about this role on the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) website. The average salary of a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist is the highest in the nursing field, in the $140,000 range.

How Do I Become A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist?

The first step in becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist is to attend a nationally accredited Masters program that offers a CRNA track. Like any program that puts you on this kind of pay scale, CRNA programs are notoriously rigorous and selective, and is always campus based, never online. Make sure that the program is accredited by the AANA as well. And, as always, make sure to check with the Board of Nursing in the state where you intend to practice, for any state specific requirements.

Nurse Anesthetists are certified by the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists.