Accreditation of regionalized and comprehensive nurse anesthesia programs.

Regionalized educational systems are becoming more common among nurse anesthesia programs and represented 41 out of 86 programs in a 1992 survey. Surveys were mailed to program directors of all nurse anesthesia programs accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs to determine if the directors perceived a need for three separate categories of accreditation. Responses indicated that, although most directors saw no benefit in applying for separate academic and clinical accreditations for their own programs, they did believe the additional accreditation options should be available to all programs. Most directors also indicated that they preferred the Council to continue offering only one category of accreditation while 33 (38%) indicated they were interested in separate accreditation categories.