As America experiences an acute nursing shortage, Hunter College is bridging the gap — by providing a sought-after specialty leading to highly paid careers.
The Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing has launched an accredited post-baccalaureate clinical doctoral program leading to a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in Nurse Anesthesia and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care.
“We are proud to be offering an advanced degree program in these critically important specialties,” said Dr. Ann Marie P. Mauro, Joan Hansen Grabe Dean of the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing. “Our unique program positions Hunter as one of the premier Nursing schools in the nation.”
The program is only the second of its kind in the nation and the first at CUNY to offer such a dual-track Advanced Practice Registered Nurse – DNP curriculum. It prepares nurses for roles such as Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioners.
The program gained accreditation in May from the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs and is being led by Specialty Director Dr. Stephen Yermal, who brings extensive experience in nurse anesthesia curriculum development and program administration.
Dr. Yermal has been instrumental in developing nurse anesthesia programs at other institutions, including Georgetown University, the University of Miami, and Oregon Health and Science University. Assistant Specialty Director Dr. Jennifer Majumdar brings more than a decade of clinical experience and a profound dedication to education and research to the role. The first class will begin in May 2025.
The new program addresses a critical national and local shortage of CRNAs, which is expected to worsen in the next decade as almost half of the nursing workforce retires. Further exacerbating the shortage is the growing demand for surgical and other interventions among an aging population. New York projects that the number of jobs for CRNAs and AG-ACNPs will grow by more than a quarter by 2028, highlighting the pressing need for more such professionals.
American Nurse Anesthetists have a mean annual salary of $212,200, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The DNP Program is a rigorous, full-time, three-year curriculum comprising 100 post-baccalaureate credits, with some 3,335 hours of clinical training, encompassing anesthesia care, acute care, and DNP activities. Students will gain hands-on experience through clinical placements in top healthcare systems across New York City, such as New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and others.
