Advising is an essential part of student success and progression at MTSA. Success in the graduate program of nurse anesthesia depends not only on being a successful student in the academic courses, but also includes being successful in each of the clinical assignments. Therefore, advising at MTSA takes two forms, academic advising and clinical advising.
Upon enrollment, students are assigned a CRNA faculty member for the purpose of advisement/mentorship. The student is to have scheduled advising sessions throughout semesters 1-6.. During these sessions, the students’ academic and clinical performances are reviewed, discussion of student progress or lack of progress occurs, and any performance improvement plans can be made. These sessions may be modified based upon the progress of the student. Online meetings can occur via audio/video call, telephone conversations or email communication as the student may be traveling to distant clinical sites.
The CRNA Advisor/Mentors review progress with each of their assigned students in both the academic and clinical areas. These evaluations are summaries of the student’s self-evaluation form, Daily Case Evaluations, Semester Evaluations, and the Academic Record. Because Senior students are not on campus at regularly scheduled times, the advisement session for semesters 7-9 may take place by telephone, email, or virtually, any combination of these methods.
The MTSA Program Administrator is the full-time MTSA administrator who has the primary responsibility for interim student advisement. However, if the student chooses, the Assistant Program Administrators are also available on a full-time basis and for student advisement. These full-time CRNA administrators are available for informal discussions with students, and dialogue is encouraged.