Before you commit: what a feasibility study should tell you
If your institution is considering a nurse anesthesia program, someone has probably already told you it's a good idea. The demand case makes itself — CRNA programs attract strong applicants, graduates are employed immediately, and the workforce need is well documented. That part is easy, and it is not what a feasibility study is for.
A feasibility study earns its keep by telling you the things nobody volunteers. Chief among them is clinical capacity, which is where most aspiring programs quietly fail. Enthusiastic letters from health system partners are not the same as case volume, and case volume is not the same as case variety. The COA expects your students to accumulate specific experiences across specific categories, and a study that reports total cases without breaking down whether the region can supply those categories — for every cohort, every year, in perpetuity, alongside any other programs already drawing from the same sites — has told you very little.
The second thing worth paying for is an honest financial picture that extends past launch. Start-up costs are relatively easy to estimate. The harder number is steady-state operating cost once the program is running at full enrollment with multiple cohorts overlapping, and the year-by-year gap between when you start spending and when tuition begins to cover it. Most programs are cash-flow negative for years before they are a contributor, and a board that understands that going in is a board that won't lose its nerve in year two.
Third, and least often addressed: a candid read on institutional readiness. Does your existing nursing infrastructure support doctoral education? Who is going to be the program administrator, and does the appointment you're prepared to offer attract the person the COA will approve? Is there an accreditation calendar that actually works backward from your target cohort, with the review cycles built in rather than assumed away?
A feasibility study that comes back with an unqualified yes should make you more suspicious, not less. The useful ones come back with a yes, and here are the four conditions — or occasionally with a not on this timeline, which is a finding worth far more than it costs.
This is the work we do first with every institution we partner with, and we'd rather tell you early that something doesn't work than help you discover it after you've hired.