UAMS Nurse Anesthetist Program to Expand to Northwest Arkansas
| Alice L. Walton Foundation, Washington Regional, Mercy, Heartland Whole Health Institute Collaborate with UAMS to Meet Regional Health Care Needs
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) today announced a collaboration with the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Heartland Whole Health Institute, Mercy and Washington Regional Medical Center to expand its existing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) program to the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville starting fall 2025. This will be the first CRNA program in Northwest Arkansas.
CRNAs provide cost-effective, high-quality anesthesia care, often serving as providers in rural hospitals, critical access facilities and surgical centers. The demand for CRNAs in Northwest Arkansas is projected to grow significantly over the next decade due to population growth, aging demographics and increasing health care needs.
The investment in the expansion is composed of $2 million from the Alice L. Walton Foundation and $500,000 each from Mercy and Washington Regional.
The forthcoming expansion will enable key enhancements including:
- Targeted recruitment efforts to attract students from Northwest Arkansas.
- Incorporation of digital health and distance-learning technologies to reach students in remote areas.
- Expanded clinical training partnerships with hospitals and surgical centers across Northwest Arkansas, improving hands-on learning opportunities in community- based health care settings.
“The expansion of this program enables us to further strengthen our nurse anesthetist training in Northwest Arkansas, which is vital to meeting regional health care needs,” said Ryan Cork, MSHA, vice chancellor of the UAMS Northwest Region. “These generous contributions from our local partners will significantly enhance educational opportunities, clinical resources and student success initiatives.”
Heartland Whole Health Institute, founded by Alice Walton, identified the need for the program’s expansion to Northwest Arkansas following the 2024 “The State of the Nursing Workforce in Arkansas: Nursing Education, Supply and Demand” report, published by the Arkansas Center for Nursing. According to the report, Arkansas communities face growing surgical and anesthesia needs, and a critical shortage of CRNAs threatens timely, safe care, especially in rural hospitals. After peaking at 500 CRNAs in 2015, Arkansas has seen a steady decline to 290 CRNAs as of 2023. Addressing this trend will require targeted interventions, such as increasing educational and training opportunities for nurse anesthetists, offering competitive wages, and implementing incentives to retain talent within the state.
Further, according to a recent Tripp Umbach report commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council and Heartland Whole Health Institute, Northwest Arkansas has experienced an 80% increase in health care sector growth between 2018 and 2023, yet more than 2,700 health care-related positions remain unfilled. Among these, nurse anesthetists are in particularly short supply.
UAMS in Little Rock currently accepts only 16 CRNA students per year for the 36-month program despite receiving over 250 qualified applicants per admission cycle, many from Northwest Arkansas. Exported talent creates bottlenecks that severely limit the number of local anesthesia professionals entering the workforce. The expanded CRNA program in Fayetteville will increase enrollment by 18 students over five years, helping meet the growing demand for skilled nurse anesthetists.
The nurse anesthetist program is a specialty in the UAMS College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Since the inception of the nurse anesthetist program in 2020, UAMS has graduated several cohorts of skilled clinicians who have already begun serving in rural hospitals and clinics across Arkansas. This expansion will accelerate program growth, support advanced practice education and strengthen access to high-quality anesthesia care statewide.
“With rapid population growth and a thriving outdoor economy, Northwest Arkansas is seeing increased demand for health care access, including a greater need for specialty services like trauma care, which requires 24/7 availability of anesthesia providers at a time when the state faces a critical shortage of anesthesiologists and CRNAs,” said Sarah Bemis, DNP, B.A., RN, Heartland Whole Health Institute’s vice president of Workforce & Policy and a member of the Northwest Arkansas Council Health Care Transformation Division. “Launching the region’s first CRNA program will strengthen the provider pipeline and expand patient access to high-quality, team-based care. It’s a testament to Arkansas’ ability to build practical, local workforce solutions that strengthen our health care system from the inside out.”
“This expansion will have a significant impact for students from Northwest Arkansas who were interested in CRNA careers but previously didn’t have a lot of clinical training options that were close to home,” said Patricia Cowan, Ph.D., RN, dean of the UAMS College of Nursing. “Thanks to the generosity of our regional partners, we will deepen the academic and clinical training that produces top-tier nurse anesthetists ready to address our state’s evolving health care needs.”
In the expanded program, students from Northwest Arkansas will spend the last five semesters at clinical facilities in the region. While there will be remote learning options for some classroom instruction, students will attend anesthesia simulations and some labs and classes in Little Rock.
“This collaborative investment reflects a regional commitment to building a more resilient health care workforce in our rapidly growing region,” said Washington Regional President and CEO Larry Shackelford. “With one of the state’s busiest surgical services departments, an outpatient surgery center and a Level II Trauma Center with 24/7 immediate anesthesiology coverage, Washington Regional understands the vital role of CRNAs. Innovative programs such as this allow us to further our mission of improving the health of our community.”
“At this critical time of growth in Northwest Arkansas, we need more nurse anesthetists. Mercy is committed to setting the pace in meeting our growing community’s need,” said Steve Mackin, Mercy president and chief executive officer. “It’s not just about expanding services; it’s about caring for our community. Mercy’s goal is to provide care where and when it is needed, close to home, for health care consumers. Now is the time to increase the number of trained CRNAs to improve the availability of needed services. We appreciate Alice Walton and all of the funding partners working together to collaborate on solutions to this health care challenge and expand access in Arkansas to this important care provider.”
About the Alice L. Walton Foundation — Founded in 2017, the Alice L. Walton Foundation works to enhance the quality of life for individuals through providing access to offerings that improve well-being and create diverse and inclusive communities. The foundation focuses on philanthropist Alice Walton’s commitment to increasing access to the arts, improving education outcomes, enhancing health, and advancing economic opportunity for all. Through this work, the foundation strives to deliver meaningful and lasting change to individuals and communities most in need. Learn more at AliceLWaltonFoundation.org.
About the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.