Urgent Vote needed! CNN Poll Poses Physician Supervision CRNA Question

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

From the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association:For more info regarding this update please call 1-888-707-7762 or e-mail [email protected].

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"Should nurse anesthetists be allowed to administer anesthesia without supervision from an anesthesiologist?" That is the misleading question

CNN's Health website is posing -- and as of 11:30 CST, the results were 3 to 1 against CRNAs.

Help us turn the tide in that vote! Vote YES!!! Vote early, vote often!

YOU MUST VOTE TODAY! Also urge your family members, colleagues and friends to vote. We have 2 days left before the final Medicare Anesthesia Rule

takes effect! Please vote now!!

http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/05/16/anesthesia.debate/index.html

This information was forwarded from an e-mail from

Larry Hornsby, CRNA, BSN

AANA President

Please vote YES!! Nurse anesthetists have been independently administering anesthesia with collaberation of physicians/dentists for ~100 years safely. They do seek advice of anesthesiologists when necessary.

PA CRNA Legislation:

(1) The registered nurse has successfully completed the educational program of a school for nurse anesthetists accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Education Programs of Nurse Anesthesia of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

(2) The registered nurse is certified as a Registered Nurse Anesthetist by the Council on Certification or on Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

(3) The certified nurse anesthetist is authorized to administer anesthesia in cooperationwith a surgeon or dentist. The nurse anesthetist's performance shall be under the overall direction of the chief or director of anesthesia services. In situations or health care delivery facilities where these services are not mandatory, the nurse anesthetist's performance shall be under the overall direction of the surgeon or dentist responsible for the patient's care.

(4) Except as otherwise provided in 28 Pa. Code 123.7© (relating to dental anesthetist and nurse anesthetist qualifications), when the operating/anesthesia team consists entirely of nonphysicians, such as a dentist and a certified registered nurse anesthetist, the registered nurse anesthetist shall have available to her by physical presence or electronic communication an anesthesiologist or consulting physician of her choice.

(5) A noncertified registered nurse who has completed an approved anesthesia program may administer anesthesia under the direction of and in the presence of the chief or director anesthesia services or a Board certified anesthesiologist until the announcement of results of the first examination given for certification for which she is eligible. If a person fails to take or fails to pass the examination, the person shall immediately cease practicing as a nurse anesthetist. If the applicant, due to extenuating circumstances, cannot take the first scheduled examination following completion of the program, the applicant shall appeal to the Board for authority to continue practicing.

(b) For purposes of this section, ''cooperation'' means a process in which the nurse anesthetist and the surgeon work together with each contributing an area of expertise, at their individual and respective levels of education and training.

Thanks,

Karen O'Hara RN, BSN

[Stargazer]

As of now (11:00 AM Pacific time) the vote is now 61 percent in favor of CRNA's to 39% against. If you haven't voted yet, please do so--it only takes a second!

[jamistlc]

Yes 62% 8885 votes

No 38% 5384 votes

Total: 14269 votes

As of 05/19/2001 @ 2056 EST

Peace,

Have a Blessed Day,

Jami :)

[OC_An Khe]

Voted today, crna's are now leading. Back in the 1960's a surgeon asked a fellow MD why he became an anethesiologist sincde that was a Nurses job. Most of the public doesn'trealize that a significant if not an absolute majority of anesthesia is administered by CRNA's, very safely and effciently.

[Owney]

This sounds like the AMA is doing what it has always done. The AMA protects the economic and political power of physicians and circumvents anyone who dares to challenge their monopoly. Nurses, Chiropractors, message therapists, herbalists, and any other alternative medicine will always play second fiddle, even in areas that they only begrudgingly allow anybody other than physicians are allowed to practice.

It is interesting to look at the history of the AMA. I may be entirely misinformed, but I understand that for a while, MDs succeeded in putting DOs out of practice in the State of California. They told DOs that they could only practice as MDs. The DOs got together and put an end to this.

I have seen how they limit the practice of Nurse Practicioners, Physician extenders and PhD and ACSW Psychologists. In only some states and for only limited scopes of practice, are anyone other than MDs allowed to prescribe. They only allow anyone to invade their monopoly in areas where there is an acute shortage of man power, and then only for "physician extenders", AKA slave labor.

A CRNA friend of mine told me that the Anesthesia program at my VA hospital is run entirely by nurses, because the feds just can't come up with the money to pay an Anesthiologist to "supervise" them.

I make no claim of expertise in any of this post--feel free to enlighten me if I am wrong. The difference between physicians and nurses is that they have a better union than we do.

I will vote on the CNN poll, if only to express my opinion about how physicians have been able to restrict and limit my personal scope of practice. I was fired from my job and blackballed last year, after 20 years in my specialty based upon harassment by Interns. After all, they are DOCTORS and therefore more than qualified to run nursing.