nurse anesthetist article

[fergus51]

Have you all read that article about nurse anesthetists? "2 years technical training vs a doctor's 12 years medical training"? What BS! Now when I worked in the States I thought that nurse anesthetist were nurses, usually with a BSN and experience who then took another 2 years to become anesthetists. They make it sound like 18 years olds fresh from high school take 2 years of a program then start work as nurse anesthetist. It really annoys me that people will be intentionally mixleading to try to maintain their position.

ps, I am not a nurse anesthetist I am just annoyed that nurses are never recognized for the vast amount of experience and eduction they have.

[Tim-GNP]

It is all part & parcel of the whole Advanced Practice Nursing 'thing.' Physicians won't want to allow APRN's to have the same clinical abilities that they do. The AMA has fought against the APRN groups for years to prevent things like NP's having prescriptive privileges, etc. This is the reason I am such an advocate for the ANA. Through our lobbying interest groups we were able to get prescriptive priv. for NP's here in PA.

I have had the honor of working with a few Nurse Anesthetists... to be honest, I can't tell the difference between them and the physician Anesthesiologists. I guess this is why the physicians dislike them, so.

[Brian, ASN, RN]

Here are the links to the articles:

Rule Ends MD Supervision of Nurse Anesthetists https://allnurses.com/news/jump.cgi?ID=448

HCFA Implements Anesthesia Supervision Rule Change, Endangering Lives of Thousands of Seniors Undergoing Surgery https://allnurses.com/news/jump.cgi?ID=449

HCFA Removes Physician Supervision Requirement for Nurse Anesthetists https://allnurses.com/news/jump.cgi?ID=443

I hope this helps the conversation.

[Navy Nurse]

I am not sure if there are still any out there, but there were Nurse Anethestist Programs that were not Master Level Programs at one time.

The bottom line here is money. The government doesn't have to pay the CRNA as much as the MD.

[fergus51]

I know it's just anestesiologists (God, I can't spell) just protecting their butts. It's the same here in Canada. Nurse practitioners have lots of priviledges up north (where they can't get doctors) but seem to lose them as soon as they cross the 60th parralel or something. It annoys me because I would prefer to see a nurse practitioner rather than a GP and I can't because there are none here. Using nurse practitioners is one good way of using our resources more efficiently.

I live in a city of about 80 000 people and we are short of GPs. About 10 000 people here rely on the walk in clinics. Why don't we accept the expertise of nurse practitioners and allow them to practice here? It makes no sense at all.

I really respect advanced practice nurses for their knowledge and commitment and I would like to see them get the recognition they deserve.

[buffy the vampire nurse]

Well its good to see that Drs protect their turf the world over. I am involved in the implementation of Nurse Practitioners in Australia and doctors here are just as willing to conceal the truth (or lie!) to achieve their aims. The best one I heard at a conference was a Doctor confidently stating that Nurse Practitioners (all of whom have at least 8-10 years postgraduate experience) will 'kill people' ,just as a hobby I guess as he didn't say what they were going to do taht made them more dangerous than drs who already kill a significant number of patients though mistakes/oversights.

It makes me so angry when doctors say that no one can do the things they do, it makes them sound like they are given magical powers when they finish medical school that allow them to diagnose and function effectively in an emergency.

[rn ticu]

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