Dr. Debra Minzola: The last face you see before surgery, the first when you awake
As members of one of America’s most trusted health-care professions, certified registered nurse anesthetists have served on the front lines of patient care for more than 150 years, and we continue to answer the call to keep our patients safe and communities healthy.
This week, Jan. 19-26, marks “National CRNA Week,” celebrating the nearly 74,000 nurse anesthetists and residents in nurse anesthesiology programs across the country for the critical role they play in addressing rising health-care costs, protecting patient health, and ensuring access to quality care.
Few people really understand what CRNAs do, or the amount of education and training they obtain to do their jobs — the average nurse anesthetist completes 9,000 clinical hours and requires national certification. Until they need them, that is. Nurse anesthetists are usually the last person a patient sees before a surgical procedure begins, and the first they see when they awake.
CRNAs are the hands-on providers of anesthesia, operating safely in every setting where anesthesia is administered, including hospital operating and delivery rooms; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, and plastic surgeons; pain management centers and more.
From collaborating on transformative health-care policy wins that advance patient care to saving lives by safely administering more than 58 million anesthetics when and where patients need it most each year, the unique expertise of CRNAs helps to ensure patients and communities stay healthy and safe.
The Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) represents approximately 4,000 CRNAs and students across the commonwealth. CRNAs nationwide administer more than 58 million anesthetics each year, when and where patients need it most.
Education and training are rigorous. Pennsylvania is among the top draws nationally for CRNA students, with fifteen highly rated nurse anesthetist programs spread across the commonwealth. Because of this experience, numerous medical studies show there is no statistical difference in patient outcomes when a nurse anesthetist provides treatment, even for rare and difficult procedures.
It is not surprising. We have been at this for a long time.
CRNAs were the first professional group to provide anesthesia care in the United States, with a history that spans to the Civil War. We have been the main providers of anesthesia care to U.S. military personnel since World War I and remain the primary anesthesia providers in austere combat theaters.
CRNAs also remain the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America and medically underserved areas, often practicing independently. Without these advanced practice nurses, some 1,500 facilities would not be able to maintain services such as obstetrical, surgical, pain management and trauma stabilization, forcing many rural Americans to travel long distances for care.
CRNA Week isn’t just a time to celebrate these professionals. It is also a time for us to recommit our advocacy to keep patients safe and communities healthy.
Among our priorities in the coming legislative sessions is a scope of practice bill that would allow CRNAs to practice to their fullest abilities. As healthcare demands grow, empowering CRNAs to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training is key to containing costs while maintaining the highest level of care.
We also are partnering with nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists on legislation that would finally make these professions and CRNAs as “advanced practice registered nurses” in Pennsylvania. Our commonwealth is behind the times in recognizing the highly trained nurses for the work they do.
Both measures received broad bipartisan support last session and will be reintroduced for consideration in the 2025-26 legislative session.
Finally, PANA is guarding against measures that would allow a new category of unlicensed anesthesia providers to practice in Pennsylvania. The proposed use of anesthesiologist assistants (AAs) is unproven in terms of anesthesia care and creates major liability issues for hospitals and other practitioners. And because AAs cannot practice apart from anesthesiologists who supervise them, it is the most expensive anesthesia care delivery model.
The Department of Health currently is reviewing the potential implementation of an AA model through delegatory authority rather than statute.
We will always be there for our patients during their most vulnerable moments, and we will do all we can to ensure access to safe, effective, efficient, affordable, compassionate care across our commonwealth.
Debra Minzola, Ph.D., CRNA, is the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
Your article was superior in kind, or quality.
Do you remember when the authorities wouldn’t let you sit with your older, and already sickly relative when they were dying of Covid? I do. I remember. And do you remember those nurses – heroes – took care of that relative during a time of sheer terror?
The. Nurses. Were. Truly. Heroes.
Then do you remember they were treated those very same nurses like trash because they didn’t want to take an experimental gene therapy shot? I do. I remember that. And I’m never going to forgive, nor forget it.
Forbes (solid source): https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2024/09/18/what-you-cant-see-can-kill-you—health-wildfire-smoke-and-air-pollution/
The article makes sure to talk about how dangerous smoke is – especially for certain ethnicities vs other ethnicities. And here is a direct quote about the effectiveness of certain masks stopping fine particles: “They emphasize that cloth or paper masks (“baggy blue” surgical masks will NOT filter out wildfire smoke).”
Remember when those nurses brave enough to ask questions and push back against tyranny… lost their jobs?
Curious what a nurse’s take is on leaving the WHO and undermining any preperation whatsoever for the next pandemic. Good luck.
But we’re not allowed to mention that climate scientists have been saying for years that climate change is a major factor in the increase of wildfires. Or that wildfires are increasing all over the world, including Russia, which is about as far from “woke” LA as it gets. The globalist ruling class elites at BP don’t want anyone talking about this. Instead we’re supposed to blame the fires on Jewish Space Lasers and be distracted by DEI programs that cost a *checks notes* 0.3% of the LAFD budget and have had *checks notes again* NO actual measurable effect on the makeup of the force. Not sure how DEI explains all the fires in Europe, Russia, South America, and Australia but ruling class oligarchs understand they can distract us with bs and we’ll never question them.
Several parallels can be drawn between Cicero and the communist party in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Cicero very much wanted what was best for his people, as did the communists. But they were both often blind to the truth. The communists failed to see that they were actually hurting not helping people until it was far too late. Cicero also went too far trying to better the lives of his people. At one point, he enacted martial law, and later he even executed people without a proper trial.
If it is true that AAs are, “the most expensive anesthesia care delivery model” there is nothing to be concerned about. No hospital will intentionally choose the most expensive alternative.