A new doctoral training pipeline for nurse anesthetists is opening in St. Cloud, and its first class of students starts classes Monday with every seat already filled. Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and CentraCare have expanded Saint Mary's Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesiology program into the city, letting students complete their clinical rotations close to home instead of commuting to a distant metro training site.
The expansion, announced as a strategic partnership between the two institutions, is described as one of the first state programs specifically designed to support rural health care needs, according to WJON. The inaugural St. Cloud cohort includes students Jake Nelson, Logan Linhardt, Ted Baas, Jaimie Haller, and Matthew Girtz, all beginning a program built to grow critical CRNA workforce capacity across west-central and rural Minnesota. Health care systems across rural Minnesota face acute staffing shortages, and the new local track is meant to chip away at that gap by training nurses in the communities that need them most.
A Doctoral Track Built for Rural Practice
The underlying degree is rigorous by design. Saint Mary's University of Minnesota's Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesiology is a full-time, 36-month doctoral program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, and it posted a 94% first-time pass rate on the national certification exam in 2026, according to Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. Admission to accredited programs like it isn't open to new nursing graduates — applicants must first complete at least one to two years of full-time critical care nursing experience in an intensive care unit, per the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, meaning the students filling these St. Cloud seats already carry real ICU experience.
That doctoral requirement is part of a broader, nationwide shift. A 2026 clinical workforce analysis cited by Clasp found the projected national shortage of CRNAs is more than four times larger than the roughly 12,500 students graduating annually, a gap made worse by the transition requiring all new CRNAs to hold doctoral degrees rather than master's degrees. Minnesota is one of more than 20 states where CRNAs hold full practice authority to administer anesthesia independently without physician supervision, according to CI Health Group, a legal framework that lets rural and critical-access hospitals lean on CRNA-only anesthesia staffing when physicians aren't available.
Why Rural Hospitals Need CRNAs Now
The stakes for rural Minnesota are laid out starkly in workforce data. The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology reports that CRNAs deliver more than 80% of all anesthesia care in rural U.S. counties and serve as the primary anesthesia providers in half of rural hospitals that offer obstetric services. Meanwhile, a Minnesota Department of Health workforce study cited by MPR News found the median age of physicians practicing in rural Minnesota has reached 60, compared with 48 in urban areas, with a third of those doctors planning to leave the workforce within five years.
That demographic pressure helps explain why CentraCare has been building out training infrastructure in St. Cloud well beyond this single CRNA cohort. In fall 2025, CentraCare and the University of Minnesota Medical School opened a regional medical school campus in the city with an inaugural class of 24 students, marking the university's first medical school expansion in more than 50 years. The nurse anesthesiology expansion fits into that same grow-your-own strategy, training clinicians locally rather than hoping recruits from elsewhere choose to relocate.
New Surgical Capacity Meets New Training Capacity
The timing lines up with CentraCare's physical expansion of surgical services in St. Cloud. The health system opened a $194 million, 225,000-square-foot expansion at CentraCare Plaza in June, adding five new operating rooms, a hybrid OR, and doubling outpatient surgical capacity, as Hoodline previously reported. CentraCare handles roughly 14,000 surgical cases a year at its St. Cloud Hospital flagship alone, and the system has offered sign-on bonuses up to $75,000 to recruit CRNAs in 2026 — a sign of how urgently it needs anesthesia providers to staff that expanded footprint.
The financial case for nursing students considering the doctoral path is also strong. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data and industry reports show the median annual salary for nurse anesthetists has surpassed $212,000, with national job growth for CRNAs projected at 35% to 40% through 2033-2034. Combined with full practice authority in Minnesota and CentraCare's aggressive recruitment bonuses, the new St. Cloud pipeline gives local ICU nurses a clear, if demanding, path into one of the best-compensated advanced nursing careers available, without leaving the region they already call home.
