Regional Anesthesia

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New member here.

I have been out of school for 6 years now and I was wondering what the schools are teaching with regards to regional these days? I got very little training in regional and i am becoming very interested in using more regional blocks. It just seems to be very difficult to learn on my own.

So what is being taught these days?

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Is nobody doing regional?

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Accreditation standards require that all graduates administer spinals, epidurals and peripheral blocks. These standards have been in place for several years, I believe.

Like you, I graduated with very little hands on regional in school. People like you and me have to find learning opportunites through employment and/or workshops. It can be done, if you haven't found a way yet, you just need to keep looking and it will come together for you eventually.

loisane crna

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My program barely taught regional, I think we honestly had one lecture. The anesthesiologists wouldn't allow us to do regionals at our home base hospital so we had to rotate to another site to get pretty much the bare minimum to meet the standards. CRNA's don't do regional anesthesia where I work. I think a doc let me put a spinal in once, so I've done 1 in four years.

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Specializes in ICU, currently in Anesthesia School.

My program educates, requires, and provides opportunities for each student to perform a full range of regional techniques (blocks, epidural/spinal, pain mgmt techniques, etc.)

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Accreditation standards require that all graduates administer spinals, epidurals and peripheral blocks. These standards have been in place for several years, I believe.

Yeah, I understand that those requirements are also very low. And that spinals can count for the majority of the regional. Does anyone have a link to the requirements?

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New member here.

I have been out of school for 6 years now and I was wondering what the schools are teaching with regards to regional these days? I got very little training in regional and i am becoming very interested in using more regional blocks. It just seems to be very difficult to learn on my own.

So what is being taught these days?

I am a senior and have about 5 months to go. I have 55 epidurals, about 25 spinals, and somewhere around 15-20 peripheral nerve blocks (popliteal, femoral, sciatic, axillary and ankle, but no interscalene). I would guess that the numbers of my classmates are fairly similar. The acute pain service does most peripheral blocks at our home institution but we get opportunities when on rotation.

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at my program we did literally over a hundred spinals and epidurals each but only 10-20 peripherals

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At my current NA program we have a regional semester where we cover everything from spinals, epidurals, peripheral blocks, local anesthetics, acute/chronic pain, and regional complications. We also attend an Anatomy Camp at the beginning of the summer where we get to practice on cadavers and learn the anatomy up close and personal. Several of the clinical sites I have been to and the one I'm at now are willing to teach and let SRNAs perform blocks, spinals, epidurals, etc. We also go through a pain service rotation at our main hospital clinical site. All in all I think we get a lot of regional experience which will help me when deciding on a CRNA position.

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Specializes in MICU & SICU.

In my program we have had 4 lectures this semester on regional anesthesia 2 by MDA's and 2 by CRNA's that specialize in regional & are approved speakers on the subject by the AACN.

One of our clinical rotations is going to be at a pain clinic to learn how to do epidurals under floro before doing them without.

I am not sure to what extent we will be doing regional blocks, to my understanding those are done mostly by the MDA's.

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At my current NA program we have a regional semester where we cover everything from spinals, epidurals, peripheral blocks, local anesthetics, acute/chronic pain, and regional complications. We also attend an Anatomy Camp at the beginning of the summer where we get to practice on cadavers and learn the anatomy up close and personal. Several of the clinical sites I have been to and the one I'm at now are willing to teach and let SRNAs perform blocks, spinals, epidurals, etc. We also go through a pain service rotation at our main hospital clinical site. All in all I think we get a lot of regional experience which will help me when deciding on a CRNA position.

Hi there, if you don't mind me asking what's the name of your program and where is it? Your description makes it sound like a very good program, I would love to look into it.

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Hi there, if you don't mind me asking what's the name of your program and where is it? Your description makes it sound like a very good program, I would love to look into it.

Hi lacedmm1,

I attend Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. The Anatomy Camp is something that the school started 2 years ago to help with our regional semester. We travel to East Tennessee State University for 4 days and use their cadaver lab. Plus, we get to meet our Southwest classmates who are offsite. VCU's NA program is set up to have students at the main Richmond campus and then in Abington, VA at the offsite campus. Check out VCU's NA home page or PM me if you want more info.

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