CRNAs have not taken the online route at all. There is no CRNA program out there that does that. There is also no state where CRNA numbers are diminishing to the extent that switching to the doctorate has created holes for other CRNAs or AAs, or anesthesiologists are stepping in to fill them. Most of the labor reports show a future oversupply of CRNAs. If AAs are becoming the preference of physicians, do you think it has more to do with them being the better provider, or the least threatening, more controllable provider that will always be attached to a supervisor? That’s my only point. I don’t doubt the quality of the product put out by AA schools, but I have my doubts about the fundamental nature of the profession (which is direct involvement with a physician). That’s the same drawback that kept me from wanting to be a PA, which I could have used my biology degree and pre med prerequisites to pursue. I actually believe that PAs and AAs should be independent providers if they choose to be, and I always have felt that way. I see no reason for the current structure of professional subservience to exist, except to benefit physicians. We’ve seen CRNAs and NPs function independently in half of states with no detriment, so the evidence is there that it works well.
As for online education, that’s an entirely different discussion, but the future isn’t in brick and mortar, and long ago we crossed the threshold of efficient remote education delivery. Anyone who drives through busy traffic to hunt for nonexistent parking on a large campus where you walk through the elements and put up with delays ( that can add an hour of travel to every hour of class ) can attest to the fact that simply logging in in the comfort of your own home on your own schedule is preferable to the “respect” of sitting through class and suffering at the speed of the least prepared student that distracts the professor with the questions that most of the rest of the students know the answer to. My Np program provides on campus time for the hands on skills, and the rest of the time we telecommute like the rest of the human workforce is moving towards. I get more out of pausing a lecture and looking up the answer to my question than I ever got from raising my hand and grinding my class to a halt. It’s older folks who can’t adapt, or missed the revolution in online education that are the most ardent critics of not sitting around the professor.... as if most of our classes resembled those in “the dead poets society” rather than the intimately appointed grand lecture halls and accompanying death by PowerPoint. Instead, I’ll sit in my lazy boy at 1 AM and broadcast tapes lectures to my 46 inch screen on the wall (or to my tablet when I’m on the road), eat a snack, skip the commute, and get much more out of the experience.
“But the respect of the brick and mortar cannot be matched!” Here’s a short story:
I worked as a TA for a professor who taught a large medical profession prereq course. He emphasized the in person experience, and thought there was no substitute. The course is now an online course because it was more efficiently delivered in that format. The major university we worked for decided on the change. I knew this was coming when most of the students did as I did the previous term and skipped class and mastered the material in the PowerPoints and the chapters.when I took his class previously, I went to one day of class and that was it.
Yale PA school, THE pre eminent PA program on Earth, operates two programs... an in person traditional program, and a newer remote learning option with a minimal on campus immersion portion. Argue with them about the respect gained by “buying an online degree”. The parchment they hand out to graduates upon graduation doesn’t differentiate the folks who lived in New Haven, and those that lived in Alaska. The on campus students protested when it first came out, but I’m sure if given the option of not getting into Yale, and getting into the Yale Online program, those same whiners would have chosen the online program so they could still use the name because they seem to care so much about it. Tuition to both programs is the same, but like Yale needs to care about profits. Anyway, I think I made my point.