The research problem this study investigated is: First, is there a discrepancy perceived between educational goals that are currently met by the minimum academic requirements of the Council on Accreditation and the importance of goals being met in the future when a baccalaureate degree is required as an entry requirement for all nurse anesthesia programs? Second, can the employment of a discrepancy evaluation technique supply a quantitative data base to assist decision makers in developing future academic curriculum requirements in nurse anesthesia educational programs?.

The entire population of certified registered nurse anesthetist (C.R.N.A.) program directors throughout the United States was included in this study, however, 116 subjects or 85% of the population responded. This study utilized the discrepancy analysis technique to evaluate 41 educational goals for the nursing specialty of anesthesia. The data collection instrument was critiqued and rated by a delphi group for the purposes of establishing validity and reliability. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficients for the instrument's measurement of present goal obtainability and future importance of the goal were .88 and .79 respectively at p < .01. Results demonstrate that C.R.N.A. program directors perceive discrepancies between the extent the 41 educational goals are met by the minimum academic requirements of the Council on Accreditation and the extent they should be met in the future when students enter all nurse anesthesia programs with a baccalaureate degree. A comparison of the rank order of goals by their mean rating of future importance, with their rank order by mean size of discrepancy, provides a mechanism to prioritize areas needing change within the academic curriculum. Although the goals are ranked by future importance ratings, 38 of the 41 goals had mean ratings on this scale above 5.0, indicating they were all perceived as highly important for the future. Analysis of variance and application of the a posteriori Duncan multiple range test indicated that on several goals there were significant differences between ratings by certificate, baccalaureate, and masters program directors on present goal obtainability, the future importance of the goal, or the discrepancy. These findings should be used to initiate the process of making revisions in the academic requirements.