First Things First

The content of this blog will likely take many twists and turns. It's all about MTSA - where it's come from, where it's going, why it's future may be in peril because of a misguided, malfeasant, and meretricious leadership. We will explore many angles, thoughts, and ideas. Hopefully, among other things, some fallacies regarding MTSA will come to light. And there are many. Let's deal with one right off the bat. You might have heard someone say that MTSA is one of the best programs in the country. We will deal with this more thoroughly at some point but for a cursory first look lets turn to US News and World Report's Rankings for Nurse Anesthesia Programs in 2007. Do we find MTSA among the top 20? Nope. Top 30? Nope. How about the top 40? Nope. OK, surely it must be in the top 50! Nope. Top 60 then? No again. The programs are ranked “based solely on the peer assessment data from academics involved in that particular field”. “To gather the peer opinion data, [they] asked deans, program directors, and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1 ("marginal") to 5 ("outstanding")”. Out of just over 100 schools listed, MTSA ranks 69th with a score of 2.6. So . . . one of the best in the country? The numbers suggest this is not the case. There are reasons why this score isn't higher. Again, first things first - or should I say 69th things first. More later.