Our 29-month curriculum is intentionally designed to both prepare students for successful immersion into the OR during the first semester and gradually increase students’ competency throughout the program. The foundations of hands-on patient care are achieved early in the program and enable students to participate in patient care activities, while also completing didactic coursework and simulation and skills training. Students progress to the clinical phase where they complete clinical rotations experiences in the diverse specialties of anesthesia care, including pediatrics, cardiac, obstetrics, neurosurgery, and trauma. Upon graduation, students will have completed 111 credit hours, experienced more than 2,000 patient contact hours, and administered anesthesia to more than 700 patients.

First Year Curriculum: Didactic Phase
A significant element of the didactic phase (semesters 1-3) is foundational medical science coursework, including advanced coursework in applied anatomy and physiology, physics, pharmacology, and anesthetic sciences. Courses are taught by AA faculty members, as well as School of Medicine faculty who are experts in their fields of study (e.g. Anatomists, Pharmacologists, and Physiologists).

Didactic coursework is coupled with simulation and skills-based training to teach patient instrumentation and monitoring, as well as anesthetic-related procedures, such as intubation, IVs, arterial and central line. Additionally, students spend significant time simulating anesthesia cases with our high fidelity simulators. Students receive more than 100 hours of training during their first year in our state-of-the-art skills/simulation laboratory.

Students spend the first six weeks of the program in our “anesthesia bootcamp”: an intense didactic and simulation program that prepares students to enter the OR. Students engage in approximately 30 hours of training during the bootcamp phase.

Clinical work begins in the first semester and students will be scheduled for approximately 600 clinical hours in the first year. Our first year rotations occur exclusively in the Kansas City area, resulting in a curriculum that synchronously blends classroom-based work and clinical experience. Additionally, students have full access to on-campus facilities, labs, and student support resources.

Second and Third Year Curriculum: Clinical Phase
The clinical phase (semesters 4-7) immerses students in full-time clinical experiences, allowing them to apply the medical knowledge and clinical skills learned during the didactic phase and gain competence in providing direct patient care. Students complete 16 four-week rotations that provide access to a variety of case types (e.g. obstetrics, neuraxial blocks, peripheral nerve blocks, trauma, etc.) and the opportunity for more than 2,500 clinical hours in their clinical phase of training. In addition to clinical rotations, the clinical phase curriculum includes coursework to prepare students for the national certification exam and entry into professional practice.

UMKC has established rotation sites with healthcare facilities across the United States to ensure its students have access and exposure to quality and diverse clinical experiences. All clinical phase students are required to travel for rotations and should expect to rotate predominately at facilities that are located outside of the Kansas City area and at out-of-state locations. The establishment of new clinical rotations is ongoing as the needs of the program and profession evolve. Cities where UMKC students rotate frequently include:

• Kansas City Metropolitan Area
• Missouri: Joplin, Springfield, St. Louis
• Oklahoma: Oklahoma City
• Wisconsin: LaCrosse, Madison, Milwaukee
• Ohio: Springfield
• Texas: Austin, San Antonio
• Florida: Gainesville
• New Mexico: Albuquerque

Course descriptions are available from the UMKC Course Catalog. The curriculum schedule is outlined below.

Year 1 – Didactic Phase

Spring Semester (16.5 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5505	Anatomy for Anesthesiologist Assistants	1
ANES 5518	Professionalism for Anesthesiologist Assistants I	0.5
ANES 5540	Patient Monitoring and Instrumentation	3
ANES 5556	Physiology for Anesthesiologist Assistants I	3
ANES 5560	Introduction to Anesthesia	2
ANES 5561	Orientation to Simulation & Clinical Application	5
ANES 5575	Pharmacology for Anesthesiologist Assistants I	2

Summer Semester (12.5 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5528	Professionalism for Anesthesiologist Assistants II	0.5
ANES 5541	Methods of Anesthesia I	2
ANES 5557	Physiology for Anesthesiologist Assistants II	2
ANES 5558	Anesthesia and Coexisting Disease I	2
ANES 5563	Anesthesia Clinical Experience I	4
ANES 5585	Physiological Model-based Simulation I	2

Fall Semester (18.5 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5506	Anatomy for the Anesthesiologist Assistant II	1
ANES 5538	Professionalism for Anesthesiologist Assistants III	0.5
ANES 5559	Anesthesia and Coexisting Disease II	2
ANES 5565	Anesthesia Clinical Experience II	8
ANES 5576	Pharmacology for Anesthesiologist Assistants II	2
ANES 5577	Methods of Anesthesia II	3
ANES 5586	Physiological Model-based Simulation II	2

Year 2 – Clinical Phase

Spring Semester (17 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5564	Anesthesia Clinical Correlation II	1
ANES 5567	Anesthesia Clinical Experience III	16

Summer Semester (13 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5568	Anesthesia Clinical Correlation III	1
ANES 5569	Anesthesia Clinical Experience IV	12

Fall Semester (17 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5570	Anesthesia Clinical Correlation IV	1
ANES 5571	Anesthesia Clinical Experience V	16

Year 3 – Clinical Phase

Spring Semester (16.5 credit hours)

Course Number	Course Title	Credit Hours
ANES 5548	Senior Seminar	0.5
ANES 5573	Anesthesia Clinical Experience VI	16