Drexel CRNA Program Interview: Questions & Requirements

Confirm the interview day schedule, delivery format, and interviewer list for your date in your invitation email and the Discover Drexel portal, where Drexel sends your specific session instructions. On its Graduate Admissions and College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP) DNP-NA pages, Drexel spells out the exact clinical, pharmacologic, and scholarly standards the faculty evaluate.

Drexel requires at least two years (post-orientation) of full-time critical care experience where you have developed independent decision-making, psychomotor skills, and the ability to use and interpret advanced monitoring based on physiologic and pharmacologic principles. Drexel names five vasoactive infusions (norepinephrine, epinephrine, dobutamine, nicardipine, and nitroglycerine) and three invasive hemodynamic monitors (pulmonary artery catheter, central venous pressure, and arterial catheter), alongside cardiac assist devices and mechanical ventilation. See our University of Minnesota CRNA interview guide for similar ICU criteria.

Drexel also requires a two-page, double-spaced personal statement in 12-point Times New Roman font detailing your desire to pursue nurse anesthesia, your long-term career goals, and a current clinical practice problem impacting nurse anesthesia practice. Because the curriculum begins with NUAN 600 (Doctor of Nursing Practice Program and Project Introduction) in your first quarter, your essay topic and your bedside physiology are natural anchors for faculty questions. For a broader look at how panels run nationwide, read our guide to CRNA school interviews.

To rehearse clinical and pharmacology questions out loud before your interview day, Confetto runs AI mock interviews for CRNA applicants with real-time follow-up questions on your drips, monitors, and essay topic. Start your free week.

Because Drexel explicitly names norepinephrine, epinephrine, dobutamine, nicardipine, and nitroglycerine in its work experience requirements, prepare to compare their receptor profiles and second-messenger pathways out loud. Be ready to explain the physiologic reason a drug works and what side effect limits its use, not just the unit protocol dose. For dozens more clinical and behavioral prompts, see our list of CRNA school interview questions with answers.

• Walk me through the adrenergic receptor profile of norepinephrine versus epinephrine, and explain when you would add or switch to epinephrine in septic shock.
• Compare dobutamine and milrinone in decompensated heart failure. Why does a patient on a chronic beta-blocker respond differently to dobutamine?
• How does nicardipine lower blood pressure, and why is it preferred over nitroglycerine for acute blood pressure control in intracerebral hemorrhage?
• Explain the mechanism of action of nitroglycerine at low doses versus high doses and how it reduces myocardial oxygen demand.
• You are titrating norepinephrine and your patient's heart rate drops from 88 to 54 as the blood pressure rises. What physiologic reflex is happening?
• What happens at the cellular level when a beta-1 receptor is stimulated by dobutamine or epinephrine?

Question 1: Compare norepinephrine and dobutamine. If your CVICU patient is hypotensive with a low cardiac index, how do you decide which one to titrate?

"Norepinephrine is primarily a potent alpha-1 adrenergic agonist with modest beta-1 activity and minimal beta-2 activity. Stimulating alpha-1 receptors on vascular smooth muscle via the Gq protein pathway increases intracellular calcium, causing peripheral vasoconstriction and raising systemic vascular resistance and mean arterial pressure. Its beta-1 effect supports stroke volume, though the rise in afterload often triggers a baroreceptor reflex that keeps heart rate neutral or slightly lower.

"Dobutamine is predominantly a beta-1 agonist with mild beta-2 and minimal alpha-1 effects. Through the Gs protein and cyclic AMP pathway, it increases myocardial contractility and heart rate while mild beta-2 stimulation causes peripheral vasodilation, reducing afterload.

"If my patient has a mean arterial pressure of 52 mmHg and a cardiac index of 1.7 L/min/m2, I check systemic vascular resistance and filling pressures first. Starting dobutamine alone in a severely hypotensive patient can drop blood pressure further through beta-2 vasodilation while raising myocardial oxygen demand. I would establish a MAP of at least 65 mmHg with norepinephrine first to protect coronary perfusion, then add dobutamine to improve inotropy and forward flow."

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

Question 2: Compare nicardipine and nitroglycerine. Why do you reach for one over the other in your unit?

"Both lower blood pressure, but they act on different parts of the vasculature through different cellular mechanisms. Nicardipine is a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker that selectively inhibits L-type calcium channels in arterial smooth muscle, with high selectivity for cerebral and coronary arteries and almost no negative inotropic effect on the myocardium. That makes it a pure arterial vasodilator that reduces systemic vascular resistance and afterload without dropping preload.

"Nitroglycerine is converted to nitric oxide in vascular smooth muscle, activating guanylate cyclase and increasing cyclic GMP, which dephosphorylates myosin light chains and relaxes the vessel. At lower doses, nitroglycerine predominantly dilates venous capacitance vessels, decreasing preload, ventricular end-diastolic volume, and myocardial wall tension. Only at higher doses does it produce significant arterial dilation.

"In my unit, if a patient has acute coronary ischemia or cardiogenic pulmonary edema with high filling pressures, nitroglycerine unloads venous return and improves subendocardial perfusion. In a hypertensive emergency with acute neurologic injury, I use nicardipine for predictable arterial afterload reduction without venodilation or elevated intracranial pressure."

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

Even if your background is in a PICU or Level I Emergency/Trauma Unit rather than an adult surgical or medical ICU, Drexel states that applicants from other areas must demonstrate competence with unstable patients, invasive monitoring, ventilators, and critical care pharmacology. Practice these six questions out loud, then review our two worked sample answers below.

• Walk me through the waveforms and normal pressures you see as you float a pulmonary artery catheter from the internal jugular vein into the wedge position.
• Your patient's arterial line reads 78/42 mmHg, but the non-invasive cuff reads 106/64 mmHg. How do you determine which number is accurate before changing their norepinephrine infusion?
• When does an intra-aortic balloon pump inflate and deflate on the arterial waveform and EKG, and what are the two primary physiologic goals of counterpulsation?
• Your mechanically ventilated ARDS patient has an ABG showing pH 7.23, PaCO2 58, PaO2 54 on FiO2 0.70 and PEEP 8. Walk through your immediate ventilator adjustments and why.
• What is the difference between peak inspiratory pressure and plateau pressure on a mechanical ventilator, and how does an inspiratory hold help diagnose acute respiratory decompensation?
• Tell us about the clinical practice problem impacting nurse anesthesia that you identified in your personal statement and how you would study it.

Question 3: Walk me through how you use pulmonary artery catheter numbers and the arterial line to distinguish septic shock from cardiogenic shock in an unstable ICU patient.

"In early or resuscitated septic shock, the primary problem is profound peripheral vasodilation and capillary leak. On the pulmonary artery catheter, I expect a low systemic vascular resistance below 800 dynes/sec/cm-5, paired with a normal or hyperdynamic cardiac index above 4.0 L/min/m2 and low-to-normal filling pressures, meaning a CVP under 6 mmHg and a pulmonary artery occlusion pressure under 12 mmHg. Mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) is often normal or above 70% because tissue oxygen extraction is impaired at the microcirculatory and mitochondrial level.

"In cardiogenic shock, the primary failure is the ventricular pump. Forward flow drops, so the cardiac index falls below 2.2 L/min/m2. Because blood backs up behind the failing ventricle, filling pressures climb, with CVP often above 12 mmHg and PAOP above 18 mmHg. Compensatory sympathetic vasoconstriction drives systemic vascular resistance above 1,200 dynes/sec/cm-5. On the arterial line, I see a narrow pulse pressure with a slow upstroke, and SvO2 drops below 60% because tissues extract a higher fraction of oxygen from slow-moving blood."

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

Question 4: In your personal statement, you had to identify a current clinical practice problem impacting nurse anesthesia practice. Tell us about the problem you chose and why it matters to you.

"In my essay, I wrote about perioperative glycemic instability in surgical patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, specifically the risks of delayed gastric emptying and euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis under anesthesia. In the SICU over the past year, I cared for two post-operative patients who developed severe metabolic acidosis with blood glucose levels under 200 mg/dL because their home SGLT2 inhibitor was held only 24 hours before surgery rather than three to four days.

"This directly impacts pre-anesthesia assessment and intraoperative management. For GLP-1 agonists, delayed gastric emptying creates an aspiration risk on induction even when patients follow standard NPO guidelines, prompting CRNAs to consider gastric point-of-care ultrasound or rapid sequence induction. For SGLT2 inhibitors, surgical stress can trigger ketoacidosis without classic hyperglycemia, so checking only fingerstick glucose intraoperatively can miss rising anion-gap acidosis.

"As a DNP student at Drexel, I want to use the DNP Project sequence starting in Year 3 Winter to evaluate standardized preoperative medication-hold screening and point-of-care ketone testing protocols."

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

Knowing how Drexel structures its 39 months helps you explain why the program fits you and how you will handle the workload. Per Drexel's CNHP DNP-NA page and Graduate Catalog, the program awards a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree across 135.0 quarter credits on a full-time integrated schedule starting in March (per the Council on Accreditation list of accredited programs).

The first three quarters (Spring, Summer, and Fall, totaling nine months and 37 quarter credits) are full-time and offered entirely online. You then complete the remaining 30 months onsite at Drexel's campus in Philadelphia (60 N. 36th Street) and at clinical sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. You come to campus in Year 2 Winter for NUAN 602, 603, and 604 (Introduction to Simulation for Nurse Anesthesia Practice), and begin Clinical Practicum I (NUAN 702) in Year 2 Spring.

The program is led by Department Chair Lew Bennett, CRNA, MSN, Associate Chair Ferne Cohen, CRNA, EdD, and Program Director Suzanne Ariza, PhD, CRNA. It holds the maximum 10-year continuous accreditation from the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA) effective October 13, 2021 through October 2031, and CCNE accreditation. For cohort size, check the COA CRNA School Search database or ask during your interview session.

Applications for the Spring 2028 cohort are due before December 4, 2026, with a $65 U.S. application fee (Drexel's Graduate Catalog notes online applications are accepted on a rolling basis, while the Graduate Admissions table lists December 4 for Spring and March 31 for Summer). Compare how these standards stack up nationally in our guide to CRNA school requirements for ICU, CCRN, GPA, and GRE.

Per Drexel Central's 2026-2027 Graduate Tuition and Fees schedule, tuition for the DNP in Nurse Anesthesia is $1,207 per credit hour, plus a $280 per-term General Full-Time Fee ($140 part-time) and a one-time $300 First-Year Program fee. By our calculation from Drexel's 2026-2027 tuition schedule and the 135-quarter-credit plan of study, base tuition across 13 quarters is $162,945 and mandatory university fees are $3,940 ($166,885 combined) at 2026-2027 rates.

• Degree and GPA: BSN or MSN from an ACEN- or CCNE-accredited program with at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale in both your last earned degree and your calculated science GPA on Drexel's Science GPA form (completed in the Discover Drexel portal).
• Critical care experience: Minimum 2 years (post-orientation) of current, full-time critical care RN experience managing invasive hemodynamic monitors, cardiac assist devices, mechanical ventilation, and vasoactive drips in SICU, MICU, CVICU, Coronary ICU, PICU, or a Level I Emergency/Trauma Unit.
• Certifications and tri-state licensure: Current CCRN (or population-specific equivalent), BLS, and either ACLS or PALS are required at application (with the other required by enrollment). You need an unencumbered US RN license eligible for PA, NJ, and DE licensure, and active RN licenses in all three states six months before clinicals start in Year 2 Spring.
• Three specific references: One each from a nurse manager, a physician or clinical supervisor, and a clinical educator or professor. References from colleagues, friends, family, or shadowed CRNAs/anesthesiologists are not accepted.

Use this two-week plan to organize your preparation around Drexel's admissions standards.

• Days 1 to 3 (Vasoactive drips): Write a one-page chart for norepinephrine, epinephrine, dobutamine, nicardipine, and nitroglycerine covering receptors, second messengers, unit doses, and rate-limiting side effects.
• Days 4 to 6 (Hemodynamics): Practice drawing right atrial, right ventricular, pulmonary artery, and wedge waveforms with normal pressures, and explaining how you level and zero a transducer at the phlebostatic axis.
• Days 7 to 9 (Ventilators and ABGs): Pick two recent ventilated ICU patients and practice a two-minute spoken walkthrough of their pathology, ventilator settings, plateau pressures, and sedation.
• Days 10 to 11 (Clinical practice problem essay): Prepare a spoken summary of the nurse anesthesia practice problem from your two-page essay and how you would study it in Drexel's DNP Project sequence (NUAN 711, 801, 808, and 811).
• Days 12 to 14 (Logistics and full mock): Prepare your plan for the full-time 37-credit online phase and tri-state (PA, NJ, DE) RN licensing, then run a full spoken mock interview with follow-up questions. Explaining G-protein pathways or troubleshooting a dampened arterial waveform out loud is very different from reading notes silently. Confetto lets you rehearse CRNA clinical scenarios, vasoactive drip follow-ups, and personal statement questions out loud with rubric-based feedback on every answer. Start your free week.

Your SICU patient is intubated after a perforated bowel repair and is receiving norepinephrine at 18 mcg/min. Their arterial line reads 82/44 mmHg (MAP 57), heart rate is 118 bpm, CVP is 11 mmHg, and lactate has risen from 2.4 to 4.8 mmol/L after 30 mL/kg of balanced crystalloids. Walk me through your assessment and which vasoactive infusion you would add next.

• Drexel University CNHP: DNP in Nurse Anesthesia Program Overview, Requirements & Outcomes
• Drexel University Graduate Admissions: Nurse Anesthesia (DNP) Application Requirements
• Drexel University Graduate Catalog: Nurse Anesthesia DNP Degree Requirements & Plan of Study
• Drexel Central: 2026-2027 Graduate Tuition and Fees
• Council on Accreditation (COA): List of Accredited Educational Programs (March 6, 2026)
• Council on Accreditation (COA): Accreditation Decisions for Nurse Anesthesia Programs