Certified Nurse Anesthetist

Certified Nurse Anesthetists are crucial to the healthcare system. A certified nurse anesthetist holds an advanced degree and practices anesthesia under licensed physicians. They perform in almost every service and are crucial to many if not all surgical services. This role is unique to the professional nursing practice in that the degree requirements are different as is the job performance (Wickenhagen, 2015). It varies from other sorts of nursing due to the nature of patient-nurse interaction and job duties.
A certified nurse anesthetist functions alongside a licensed physician, APRN, and Doctors of Dental Surgery. They provide all types of anesthesia services such as local, regional, and general to all types of patients across the health
There were many pioneers to the service who contributed to the profession such as Alice McGaw, Dr. George Crile, and Margaret Hatfield just to name a few (Fleming, 1968). Fleming (1968) explains that these pioneers helped to shape profession that provides excellent anesthesia service and quality care to approximately over 40 million patients a year. Today there are approximately over 49,000 practicing certified registered nurse anesthetists nation-wide. Certified registered nurse anesthetists can practice in many different types of settings such as the surgical setting in a hospital, the military, delivery suites, ambulatory surgery centers, a doctor’s office or clinics (Wickenhagen, 2015). The profession requires an extensive amount of education and the applicant for the program must have a current registered nurse license and a bachelor degree in nursing science in order to apply to a program. The nurse must not only hold a four year degree but must also have experience in the critical care unit for at least a year. A registered nurse must graduate with a higher degree in an accredited nurse anesthetist program. Doing so will allow the applicant to qualify and sit for National Certification Examination. A certified registered nurse anesthetist must also continue his or her education every two years in order to remain certified. This ensures the quality of the education of the nurse anesthetist. A nurse who wants to participate in a program as such has to have critical care experience to even be considered a valued applicant. A nurse working in an operating room as a circulator or scrub nurse does not qualify for the program. A nurse with a master’s degree other than in nurse anesthetist cannot fill this position as the anesthetist is required to graduate from an accredited nurse anesthetist