National Board of Certification +Recertification Nurse Anesthesia 2013 Annual Report

National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA) 2013 annual Report

The National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA) is proud to share our inaugural annual report. It is the hope of the NBCRNA Board of Directors that this and future annual reports will provide greater transparency and understanding of the mission and work of the NBCRNA, and update our stakeholders on our progress toward promoting patient safety through credentialing programs that support lifelong learning.

The NBCRNA 2013 Annual Report summarizes our priorities, milestones and accomplishments of the past year. The President of the NBCRNA Board and the NBCRNA CEO reflect on some of the challenges and accomplishments of 2012-2013. NBCRNA committee and staff reports provide updates on certification, recertification, the CPC Program and the Non-Surgical Pain Management Subspecialty Certification. The report also includes statistics highlighting the NBCRNA's communication initiatives and data from our customer service surveys.

We invite you to click HERE to read our report.

Non-Surgical Pain Management Certification

In September 2012, the NBCRNA, AANA, and COA signed a joint letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the agency to reinstate reimbursing nurse anesthetists for pain services.

The three organizations expressed our commitment to promote practice, educational and certification standards which will ensure that nurse anesthetists are prepared to provide high quality pain therapy to the millions of Americans in need. We laud CMS for its subsequent decision to rule in favor of reimbursing Nurse anesthetists for non-surgical pain management (NSPM).

"Our organizations are committed to developing enhanced standards, each within

its own area of expertise, furthering the advancement, establishment, and maintenance

of rigorous and evidence-based standards for CRNA practice of chronic pain management."

To uphold our commitment to verify nurse anesthetists as competent NSPM providers, the NBCRNA has begun developing a voluntary, sub-specialty certification. Our goal is to create a comprehensive credential for nurse anesthetists practicing in the area of NSPM that provides them an opportunity to demonstrate their advanced knowledge and skill in this area. We intend for this certification to meet the needs of those in pain management practice not currently paid by private insurers because of a lack of certification.

A volunteer NSPM committee comprised of nurse anesthetists has developed draft criteria for earning the credential. These criteria were presented to interested nurse anesthetists for their feedback at the 2013 AANA Annual Meeting and during a webinar open to all nurse anesthetists. The NBCRNA also emailed a survey to nurse anesthetists, inviting them to weigh in on the proposed elements of the credential. The NBCRNA plans to have the certification available to nurse anesthetists in 2014.