What do you really do over there...

Can you administer a GA by yourselves? What do you really do over there..?

Plain and simple. We do anesthesia. Though I now work in a facility with a MD, I have worked in facilities where there were no anesthesiologists on staff. Even now, I do general and regional anesthetics by myself. Induce, maintain, and emerge from GA without the MD in the room. In OB, I do the epidurals for labor, spinals for sections, and the rare general anesthetic for truly stat sections. On call, I often do these things when I am the only anesthesia provider in the hospital.

Hello, what are your resposibilities/role as a nurse anesthetist in Australia? I had heard, that there weren't any nurse anesthetists only anesthesia "technician". And where could a foreign nurse anesthetist work in Australia?

Thanks for your replies. I work in a base hospital as the anaesthetic registered nurse. My role does not allow me to induce a patient. I can intubate, ventilate, maintain and give reversal drugs under direction of the anaesthetist. I also have to be multiskilled and be able to scrub, scout and work in recovery. Due to registered nursing shortages there is a trend in the cities for the nursing anaesthetic role being replaced by enrolled nurses and technicians, thus making the registered nurse anaesthetic job becoming deleted. A master of nursing degree as a nurse practioner specialising in anaesthesia is available, however not many universities offer this course..and I believe the insurance costs are astranomical if you are a nurse practioner in this country, which puts a lot of people off.

I am really envious of you american nurses. I so surely wish that in the future our role with anaesthesia will be expanded with more responsibility. I have done a lot of training courses have an A&E and ICU background and feel belittled that I cannot use my knowledge, experience and skills to do here what you guys do over there. We admire what the american nurses have done in the past and continue to do and we benchmark ourselves to your practice, you are great international nursing role models.

I agree, the nursing profession is decades ahead in terms of education, certification and expanded roles in the US. It is a great help to know you've done this stuff for years, and frustrating that we aren't there yet as a profession in Australia.