Keiser's Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice and its clinical affiliates
Keiser's Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (Entry-into-Practice) is a 90-credit, 36-month hybrid program based at the Naples campus, with five clinical practicum courses at the program's clinical affiliates. Where Keiser's FNP students find their own preceptors, the anesthesia program describes its clinicals in terms of partner sites across Florida. What you plan for is the region, the travel and the in-person weeks in Naples.
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Tell us your Keiser program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Keiser course.
Two DNAP programs, one with clinicals
Keiser offers the DNAP in two forms. The Entry-into-Practice DNAP prepares registered nurses to become nurse anesthetists and carries all of the clinical work. The Completion DNAP is for anesthetists already in practice: 30 credits of online coursework and a capstone, with no clinical courses, offered through Naples and the Graduate School.
This guide covers the Entry-into-Practice program. Its catalog outline divides 90 credits into 63 didactic credits, 12 capstone credits and 15 credits of clinical practice spread across five practicum courses, over about 36 months.
| Item | Keiser's figure |
|---|---|
| Credits | 90: 63 didactic, 12 capstone, 15 clinical practice |
| Length | 36 months |
| Delivery | Hybrid: mostly online, with required sessions at the Naples campus |
| Course format | 16-week courses, two to five at a time |
| Clinical practicum courses | NGR844, NGR854, NGR965, NGR975, NGR985 |
| Clinical sites | Program clinical affiliates in six Florida regions |
| Licensure disclosure | Meets educational requirements in all states |
Admission: critical care, shadowing and certifications
The DNAP asks more of applicants before the first day than Keiser's NP programs do. The catalog's admission list for the Entry-into-Practice program includes these items:
- At least one year as a full-time registered nurse in critical care.
- At least 40 hours shadowing an anesthesia provider.
- Current BLS and ACLS.
- Eligibility for a Florida RN license.
The shadowing hours are an admission item, separate from the practicum courses you take once enrolled, and the critical care year has to be full time. Note the license wording too: the DNAP asks for eligibility for a Florida RN license, while the FNP and WHNP ask for an active Florida license plus one in the state where you do clinicals. The Florida RN license guide explains the NP-side rule.
How the Naples schedule works
The DNAP runs on 16-week courses, not the 8-week terms of Keiser's other graduate nursing programs, and you carry two to five courses at once. Most instruction is online, but the program page sets mandatory in-person sessions at the Naples campus in week 1 and again in weeks 8 and 15 of each semester.
That comes to three visits to Naples every semester, which matters if you live elsewhere in Florida. Budget the travel from the start, and keep the Naples weeks in mind when you think about clinical regions, since a rotation near home still has to fit around them.
The FNP, WHNP and DNP follow the term calendar in the graduate calendar guide, with starts roughly every eight weeks. The DNAP keeps its own semester rhythm, so dates you see for FNP or DNP terms do not apply to anesthesia courses.
Clinical affiliates and what Keiser says about placement
The DNAP program page names clinical partners in Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples and Jacksonville, and the catalog speaks of affiliate clinical sites and clinical placement. That is the language of a program-arranged model, which sets the DNAP apart from the FNP, where Keiser tells students to find their own preceptors.
The same page is plain that the program cannot promise a place at any particular site. Plan for the possibility of rotations away from home within those six regions, and ask the program how rotations are assigned and whether your preferred region is taken into account.
Keiser's public documents stop short of a course-by-course statement of who arranges each anesthesia rotation. The program itself is the place to confirm how placement works for your cohort, and it is worth asking before you accept an offer if travel is a concern.
Clinical hours and progression
The catalog prints 15 clinical practice credits across the five practicums but no hour totals for them. Keiser's general catalog rule is that practicum courses meet at least 45 hours per credit and may exceed that floor, so ask the program for the hours each course carries rather than working a figure out yourself.
Progression is strict. Every course must be passed each semester before you move to the next, no more than one final grade of C is allowed in major courses, and the catalog allows no re-admission after dismissal. Steady clinical performance matters as much as coursework.
On licensure, Keiser's DNAP disclosure lists the program as meeting educational requirements in every state, a cleaner picture than the FNP and WHNP disclosures, which each name states where the program does not meet them. See the licensure disclosures guide for the full lists.
How the DNAP compares with Keiser's other advanced programs
For a registered nurse choosing an advanced path at Keiser, the clinical model differs as much as the role. The table sets the anesthesia program beside the three graduate programs where the student carries more of the placement work.
| Program | Who arranges clinical sites | Clinical hours Keiser publishes |
|---|---|---|
| DNAP (Entry-into-Practice) | Program clinical affiliates | No total; 15 clinical practice credits |
| MSN FNP | You find them; Keiser approves | 540 in the catalog, 510 on the program page |
| MSN WHNP | Help in South Florida; your own site elsewhere | 710 required, 680 in the course lines |
| DNP | You bring a setting and mentor | 1,000 for the degree |
If control over where you train matters to you, weigh that difference alongside the role itself. The programs overview lists every Keiser nursing program, and the MSN FNP guide explains the student-led search in detail.
Where our placement desk fits for DNAP students
Our core work is the preceptor search for the Keiser programs where students find their own sites: the MSN FNP, WHNP clinicals outside South Florida, the DNP practice courses and the RN to BSN community clinical. The DNAP's rotations run through Keiser's affiliates, so the program is your first contact for those.
For DNAP students and applicants, the placement desk offers clear answers. Tell us your situation and we read it against Keiser's published DNAP rules, set out which parts belong to the program, and, if you move into one of Keiser's NP programs, run the full preceptor search for you from the first practicum on. If you are weighing the DNAP against the FNP, your placement advisor can also show you what five FNP searches involve before you decide. Use the form below and choose Nurse Anesthesia (DNAP).
Questions Keiser students ask
Where is Keiser's nurse anesthesia program based?
The Entry-into-Practice DNAP is based at Keiser's Naples campus. Most coursework is online, with mandatory in-person sessions in Naples in week 1 and weeks 8 and 15 of each semester. Clinical rotations take place at program partners in Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples and Jacksonville.
Do Keiser DNAP students find their own clinical sites?
Keiser describes DNAP clinicals through its own clinical affiliates and clinical placement, which reads as a program-arranged model rather than the student-led search of the FNP. The program page also says it cannot promise a spot at a specific site. Keiser's public documents give no fuller statement, so confirm the process with the program.
How many shadowing hours does Keiser's DNAP require?
The catalog asks for at least 40 hours shadowing an anesthesia provider as part of admission, alongside at least a year of full-time critical care nursing, current BLS and ACLS, and eligibility for a Florida RN license. The shadowing comes before you enroll and is separate from the five clinical practicum courses.
Is there a Keiser DNAP for practicing CRNAs?
Yes. The Completion DNAP is an online program for nurse anesthetists already in practice, offered through Naples and the Graduate School. It consists of 30 credits of coursework plus a capstone and has no clinical practicum courses, so the affiliate rotations described on this page apply only to the Entry-into-Practice program.
What happens if I fail a Keiser DNAP course?
The catalog requires every course to be passed each semester before you progress, and it allows no more than one final grade of C in major courses. A student dismissed from the Entry-into-Practice program cannot be re-admitted, so raise any clinical or academic difficulty with faculty early in the semester.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Keiser's catalogs, graduate nursing manuals, licensure disclosures and program pages. Your course, the Clinical Coordinator and the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog have the final word.
Keiser asks you to find your own preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your Keiser program, your next practicum and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and site details your Preceptor/Mentor Information Form needs, about three months ahead.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NUR602AandNUR603A, pediatrics forNUR604A, women's health forNUR605A - CV, license, certification and site contact ready for Keiser's review and the affiliation agreement
- Across Florida, from Miami to Jacksonville, and in the other states where you are licensed
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