Detroit Mercy CRNA Interview: Questions & Requirements (2026)

Applicants to the University of Detroit Mercy Nurse Anesthesia program submit materials between March 1 and June 15 for enrollment the following August. According to the program's Admissions and Info page, the Admissions Committee reviews completed files in June, July, and August. Every transcript, recommendation, and prerequisite course must be completed and received by June 15, or your file will not be reviewed.

Detroit Mercy's pages list slightly different interview windows across sections, so watch your email closely from August onward. One section of the Admissions and Info page states that the school contacts applicants in August for interviews in August or September. Another section on the same page states that applicants are notified in September to October for interviews in November, while an older 2024 FAQ page mentions interviews in October and January. Confirm the exact date, location, and format in your invitation email.

The Admissions Committee's goal is to notify every interviewed candidate within two weeks with one of three decisions: accepted, accepted as an alternate, or denied. Accepted applicants confirm their seat in writing, submit a $1,000 non-refundable deposit applied to first-term tuition, pass a health and drug screening and criminal background check, and remain in critical care until classes start. Across your file, clinical references, and interview, the committee evaluates four core areas:

• Critical care clinical depth: Direct familiarity with invasive hemodynamic monitoring, ventilatory care, and pharmacologic management.
• Independent decision-making: Experience in a unit where you act as an independent decision maker and interpret advanced monitoring data.
• Maturity and readiness: Personal readiness for a 36-month program that demands 60 to 65 hours per week in years two and three.
• Understanding of the CRNA role: Confirmed by shadowing a CRNA before your interview and articulated in your two-page professional autobiography.

To rehearse both clinical scenarios and personal questions out loud before your fall date, Confetto runs AI mock interviews for CRNA and healthcare applicants with follow-up questions based on your answers. Start your free week.

Detroit Mercy's admissions requirements state that your critical care experience is judged on three specific pillars: invasive hemodynamic monitoring, ventilatory care, and pharmacologic management. The curriculum's terminal objectives also emphasize interpreting data from noninvasive and invasive monitors, managing physiologic responses, and calculating fluid and blood therapy. Compare clinical prep in our University of Minnesota nurse anesthesia interview guide.

Our team wrote the clinical and pharmacology practice questions below to match UDM's three clinical pillars. For a broader set of questions across programs, see our guide to CRNA school interview questions.

• Hemodynamics 1: Walk me through how you zero, level, and assess the waveform of an arterial line. What happens to the blood pressure reading if the transducer is below the phlebostatic axis, and what does an overdamped vs. underdamped waveform look like?
• Hemodynamics 2: Your patient has a pulmonary artery catheter or central venous line. Walk me through the hemodynamic profile (CVP, SVR, cardiac output) you see in septic shock versus cardiogenic shock, and how that changes your first intervention.
• Pharmacology 1: Compare norepinephrine, phenylephrine, vasopressin, and epinephrine. Which receptors does each target, how does each affect heart rate and afterload, and when would you add a second agent in refractory hypotension?
• Pharmacology 2: You are managing a mechanically ventilated ICU patient on propofol, fentanyl, and dexmedetomidine. Compare their mechanisms of action and the hemodynamic or metabolic side effects you watch for on each infusion.
• Ventilatory care 1: A sedated patient on volume control ventilation has an arterial blood gas showing pH 7.24, PaCO2 60 mmHg, PaO2 62 mmHg, and HCO3 25 mEq/L. Interpret the ABG and explain which ventilator settings you would expect to adjust first and why.
• Ventilatory care 2: Your ventilated patient's high-pressure alarm suddenly goes off. How do you use peak inspiratory pressure and plateau pressure to tell whether the problem is airway resistance or lung compliance?
• Patient scenario: Tell me about the sickest patient you managed in your ICU in the last six months. Walk through the lines, drips, and ventilator settings you managed, and one independent decision or escalation you made.

When faculty ask a pharmacology or physiology question, name the receptor or physiological mechanism, explain what you see on the monitor at the bedside, and state what you do next. Here are two worked examples written by our team.

Practice Question 1 (Pharmacology and Hemodynamics): "Your post-op surgical patient is hypotensive with a MAP of 52 mmHg and a heart rate of 118 bpm. Compare how phenylephrine and norepinephrine work, and tell us which you would anticipate starting after fluid resuscitation and why."

"After confirming the arterial line waveform is accurate and that the patient has been adequately fluid resuscitated, I would look at the receptor profiles of both drugs alongside that heart rate of 118. Phenylephrine is a pure alpha-1 adrenergic agonist. It causes peripheral vasoconstriction and raises systemic vascular resistance and mean arterial pressure, but because it has no beta-1 activity, the rise in blood pressure often triggers a vagally mediated reflex bradycardia. Norepinephrine is primarily an alpha-1 agonist with modest beta-1 adrenergic activity. It increases systemic vascular resistance through alpha-1 vasoconstriction while its beta-1 effect supports myocardial contractility and helps maintain cardiac output.

"In a post-op patient who is already tachycardic at 118 beats per minute, if the hypotension is from vasodilation and cardiac output is adequate, phenylephrine can raise the MAP while helping bring the heart rate down. However, if this patient is septic or has any concern for depressed cardiac output, pure afterload from phenylephrine without inotropic support can drop stroke volume. In septic or undifferentiated distributive shock, norepinephrine is the first-line vasopressor because it restores vascular tone while supporting contractility. At the bedside, I would check the patient's extremities, lactate, urine output, and pulse pressure variation to see whether they need pure alpha-1 tone or combined alpha-1 and beta-1 support."

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

Practice Question 2 (Ventilatory Care): "Your intubated ICU patient's peak inspiratory pressure jumps from 24 to 42 cmH2O. How do you figure out the cause and what do you do first?"

"First, I look at the patient and the monitor to check oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and chest rise, and if the patient is desaturating or in severe distress, I disconnect them from the ventilator and manually bag them with 100% oxygen to feel the lung compliance myself. If the patient is stable enough to assess on the ventilator, I perform an inspiratory hold maneuver to check the plateau pressure. That separates an airway resistance problem from a lung compliance problem.

"If the peak inspiratory pressure is 42 cmH2O but the plateau pressure is still low, say 20 cmH2O, the widened gradient tells me the issue is increased airway resistance in the circuit or conducting airways. I check for a kinked endotracheal tube, patient biting on the tube, a mucus plug requiring suctioning, condensate in the tubing, or bronchospasm. If both the peak pressure and the plateau pressure are elevated together, the problem is decreased lung or chest wall compliance. I immediately auscultate bilateral breath sounds and check for tracheal deviation to rule out a tension pneumothorax, confirm the endotracheal tube depth hasn't migrated into the right mainstem bronchus, and evaluate for pulmonary edema, abdominal distension, or auto-PEEP."

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

Detroit Mercy requires a two-page professional autobiography (single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins) answering four multi-part questions. In your interview, expect questions pulled directly from those four prompts and your CRNA shadowing experience. Prepare spoken answers for each topic below, and compare how other schools structure these conversations in our CRNA school interviews guide.

• Your ICU background: "Tell us about your ICU, its size and patient population, and your roles on the unit." Name your hospital, bed count, typical patient diagnoses, and leadership roles (charge nurse, preceptor, rapid response, or unit committees).
• Role of the CRNA: "How do you perceive the role of the nurse anesthetist, and what did you observe when you shadowed a CRNA?" Connect what you saw in the operating room to UDM's description of graduates who practice with integrity, independence, and leadership across rural hospitals and urban trauma centers.
• Why Detroit Mercy: "Why did you select the University of Detroit Mercy program over other CRNA schools in Michigan?" Point to specific UDM features: the front-loaded first year with no clinical rotations, small-group instruction in Principles of Anesthesia taught by full-time CRNA faculty, computer-based testing that mirrors the NCE, and rotations across independent rural hospitals and Detroit trauma centers.
• What you offer the profession: "What do you feel you have to offer the profession of nurse anesthesiology?" Tie a concrete strength from your nursing career to how you will handle a 60 to 65 hour per week clinical schedule and contribute to your cohort of 25 students.
• Financial and personal readiness: "Working is strongly discouraged once clinicals start. How have you planned for 36 months of graduate school?" Have a plain, realistic answer showing you understand the 9-term cost structure and the jump in weekly hours in Year 2.

Why did you select the University of Detroit Mercy Nurse Anesthesia program, and how does what you saw while shadowing a CRNA connect to training here?

• UDM Nurse Anesthesia: Admissions and Info (Revised August 11, 2026)
• UDM Nurse Anesthesia: DNP-NA Curriculum (Revised 9/1/26)
• UDM Nurse Anesthesia: Accreditation and Outcomes (Revised November, 2025)
• UDM Nurse Anesthesia: Frequently Asked Questions (Revised May 13th, 2024)
• UDM Nurse Anesthesia: Tuition and Costs
• UDM Nurse Anesthesia Program Overview
• COA List of Accredited Educational Programs (December 5, 2025)
• COA Standards for Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Programs: Practice Doctorate (Effective January 1, 2026)