MTSA provides a Master of Science in Anesthesia, and a Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice degrees.
Mission
Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia exists to provide a Christian, Seventh-day Adventist learning environment that fosters the pursuit of truth, excellence in and access to graduate nurse anesthesia education, and a life of service.
Vision
Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia endeavors to be a national leader in academic and professional excellence, specific to graduate nurse anesthesia education. The School will remain responsive to the needs of its constituents and its diverse student body.
Core Values
• Christian, Seventh-day Adventist values-driven curriculum and program
• Academic and clinical excellence that fosters a life of service
• Wholistic approach to administering the program
• Graduate education that prepares nurses to pass the National Certification Examination and enter the workplace with confidence
• Balanced and healthy lifestyle for students, faculty, and staff
History, Heritage, and Christian Legacy
History & Heritage
MTSA’s quiet beginning has roots from more than a century ago. In 1904, a group of Seventh-day Adventist pioneers committed to health, wellness, and temperance traveled south from Battle Creek, Michigan to initiate a health care education institution among the poor, and founded Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute. This School developed and transformed through name changes and maturity including an elementary school, high school, junior college, and eventually a full college. Concurrently on the campus, a health work began with Madison Sanitarium which developed into Madison Sanitarium and Hospital, Madison Hospital, and finally nearly a century later, Tennessee Christian Medical Center. The hospital provided a site for clinical training as the college educated scores of health care professionals. Since its beginning, the School regularly provided anesthesia at rural hospitals across the region as a service – which is the basis for the multiple clinical instruction locations today.
These ancestor institutions laid the ground work for MTSA which began as the Madison Hospital School of Anesthesia for nurses in 1950 as part of Madison College. This rich history began more than 60 years ago when Bernard V. Bowen, CRNA, DSc, founded the School to facilitate nurse anesthesia education within the framework of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, which included no Saturday classes. MTSA started with just two students in a 12-month program, but soon expanded to 18-months, admitting 16 students annually. On July 1, 1980, the school changed its name from Madison Hospital School of Anesthesia and officially formed as it is known today—the Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia – the last vestige of Madison College and Madison Hospital that remains to this day.
Christian Seventh-day Adventist Legacy
The Christian spirit of dedication and work that led to MTSA’s development is very much alive today. The School continues to foster a learning environment encouraging strong moral principles and a close relationship with God. The Institution celebrates the diversity of faiths represented in the student body, faculty, and staff, and respects the differences of persuasion that are present. It operates with a wholistic, balanced approach to life which includes the physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual – while encouraging a relationship with God as the Creator.
As a Christian church, Seventh-day Adventists are a faith community rooted in the beliefs described by the Holy Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments). In harmony with a broad overall mission to reflect Christ in its educational program, and in keeping with its Adventist heritage, the Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia conducts classes with an exposure to Adventist beliefs.
Many of these beliefs are foundational and common to Protestant Christians from a variety of faith traditions and include -- The Trinity; the Divinity of Jesus; a literal six-day creation; and, Salvation through faith in Jesus. Yet, there may be some belief differences, including a 24-hour Sabbath rest from work and school beginning Friday evening sundown and concluding Saturday evening sundown, when no school-sponsored activities, classes, or events take place. You too may notice food choices limited to a diet exempt of certain options as a commitment to health and temperance.
Jesus Christ exemplified a life of service. It is MTSA’s desire to follow His pattern and honor the Bible, while exhibiting this through learning, scholarship, and ministry. For more information regarding the SDA church visit www.adventist.org.
Keywords: MTSA, Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia, CRNA, DNP, DNAP, AANA,
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