The Challenge
The demand for nurse anesthetists is accelerating across the United States, driven by an increase in surgical procedures—particularly in settings where anesthesia services are essential. In South Carolina, the shortage is especially severe in rural areas, where hospitals and clinics often face challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified anesthesia providers. This lack of access can delay care, increase patient risk, and widen health disparities in underserved communities.
When you invest in our students, you’re not just supporting their education, you’re empowering the future of safe, compassionate health care for every patient they will encounter. Your generosity helps turn ambition into expertise, preparing our graduates to serve this field with precision and excellence in South Carolina and beyond.
How You Can Help
To help meet this demand, the SOMC’s program envisions creating a program-specific simulation training center. This center would feature state-of-the-art simulation technology and expert staff to provide students with hands-on training in a realistic but risk-free environment.
Funding is needed to build a world-class simulation space with operating room replicas and cutting-edge anesthesia equipment.
We will also need to invest in high-tech patient simulators, virtual reality systems and anesthesia simulators to replicate real-world scenarios.
Our program currently has limited capacity to offer student scholarships and lags behind national benchmarks.
Students who enter our program are often adults who have already spent a number of years working in the nursing field. They have the responsibilities that come with adulthood, yet studying in the DNAP program precludes outside employment.
To help students, we would like to be able to offer scholarships supported by an endowment.