CRNAs: The science and heart of anesthesia
In countless operating rooms, delivery suites, and trauma settings across the state and nation, you’ll find Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) practicing the science and heart of anesthesia.
These highly trained professionals guide patients through their most vulnerable moments with unmatched skill, compassion, and reassurance. Whether it’s a child undergoing their first operation, a wounded soldier on the front lines, or a senior facing a crucial procedure, CRNAs are the hands-on anesthesia experts there to keep their patients safe, comfortable, and cared for.
Every year across the United States, more than 75,000 CRNAs, also known as nurse anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists, safely administer more than 58 million anesthetics to patients. With approximately 4,000 certified registered nurse anesthetists and student registered nurse anesthetists in the commonwealth, Pennsylvania’s practice is one of the most robust in the country.
In fact, Pennsylvania is among the top draws for CRNA students nationwide. The state currently operates 15 highly rated nurse anesthesia doctoral programs spread out across the commonwealth.
CRNAs pride themselves on rigorous education and training standards. When you combine the clinical critical care registered nurses experience required to enter CRNA training, the clinical experience obtained in an undergraduate nursing curriculum, and the clinical anesthesia training in a nurse anesthetist program, the average nurse anesthetist completes 9,000 clinical hours.
CRNAs must have a bachelor’s degree, be a registered nurse, and have at least one year of acute care ICU nursing experience prior to entering nurse anesthesia educational programs – in other words, they learn to assess and treat a broad range of health problems before even beginning anesthesia training.
To keep up with evolving care standards, continuing education is important. Not only are CRNAs required to be nationally certified, but they also must be recertified every four years.
Because of their training and experience, numerous medical studies show there is no statistical difference in patient outcomes when a nurse anesthetist provides treatment. In fact, these studies by nationally recognized health-care policy and research organizations prove that CRNAs provide high-quality care, even for rare and difficult procedures.
With experience both as a program administrator and as a clinician, I have observed that the skill and expertise of CRNA practice throughout the state demonstrates what the research evidence documents: CRNAs consistently provide safe anesthesia care in all practice settings across Pennsylvania.
As health-care demands continue to grow, increasing the number of CRNAs will be key to containing costs while maintaining quality care. Managed care plans recognize CRNAs for providing high-quality anesthesia care with reduced expense to patients and insurance companies. The Federal Trade Commission has even cautioned states against policies that restrict advanced-practice nurses’ work.
CRNAs are recognized as the hands-on providers of anesthesia care, practicing in every setting where anesthesia is administered, including hospital operating and delivery rooms; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of physicians, dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, and plastic surgeons; and pain management centers.
CRNAs support expectant families by enabling access to high-quality labor and delivery care—often in areas where no other anesthesia professionals are available.
In fact, CRNAs provide more than 80% of anesthesia care in rural areas. Our presence in the community, skill, and precision ensure patients undergo timely surgery safely, access pain management, and avoid needless delay or travel.
CRNAs have long served on the front lines of patient care—usually as the only anesthesia providers in the military’s forward surgical teams, having been the main providers of anesthesia care to U.S. military personnel on the front lines since World War I—and we continue to answer the call to keep patients healthy and safe.
As advanced practice registered nurses, CRNAs are members of one of America’s most trusted and respected health-care professions.
Administering anesthetics when and where patients need it most, the unique expertise of CRNAs helps to strengthen our health-care delivery model and ensure communities stay healthy and safe through access to high-quality care.
Jodie B. Szlachta PhD, CRNA, is the President of the PA Association of Nurse Anesthetists
