Administering anesthesia across the United States for more than 150 years, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) from Amberwell Health and thousands of their colleagues from around the country are celebrating this year’s 25th annual National CRNA Week campaign taking place, January 17-24. 2024.
With a history spanning back to the Civil War, nurse anesthetists have remained at the head of the table for every moment of their patients’ procedures, administering their anesthetics, monitoring their vital signs, and helping to ensure that each year millions of patients receive the safest anesthesia care possible.
CRNAs administer anesthesia to patients undergoing general, cardiac, neurological, oral, and labor and delivery surgeries, just to name a few. Regardless of the setting, nurse anesthetists apply exacting standards of care. Their profession is dedicated to providing a safe anesthetic and has historically played a pivotal role in every facet of anesthesia advancement.
Nurse anesthetists are advanced practice registered nurses who administer more than 34 million anesthetics in the United States each year. Practicing in every setting where anesthesia services are available, CRNAs practice with a great deal of autonomy, and are the sole anesthesia professionals in most rural hospitals.
The priority of CRNAs is the safety of their patients during surgery. CRNAs care for their patients providing safe, quality anesthesia when patients are at very vulnerable times in their lives. They’re there for every heartbeat and every breath, caring for patients in northeast Kansas and throughout America.
While 2024 marks the 25th year for National CRNA Week, the nurse anesthesia profession began more than 150 years ago during the American Civil War. Since then, CRNAs have taken immense pride in administering safe, high-quality anesthesia with a level of care and compassion that is synonymous with being a nurse.
In today’s healthcare climate, CRNAs are the key to the future of anesthesia care, as there is an increasing demand for highly qualified healthcare specialists who can ensure access to patient care that is both extremely safe and cost-effective. By celebrating National CRNA Week, we aim to highlight the valuable role that CRNAs play today and will continue to play tomorrow. National CRNA Week serves as an opportunity to inform the public exactly what CRNAs do and who they are.
Nurse anesthetists have been at the forefront of anesthesia patient safety for over 150 years. CRNAs play a key role in developing trends related to monitoring technology, anesthetic drugs, and standards of care. In fact, due to continuing research and education, anesthesia today is nearly 50 times safer than it was in the 1980s.
As the primary hands-on provider of anesthesia care in both military and civilian settings, CRNAs practice in every setting in which anesthesia is administered. That includes but is not limited to hospital operating and delivery rooms; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons; pain management centers, and within the U.S. Military, Public Health Services, and Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.
National CRNA Week was established by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) and was created to encourage CRNAs to take the opportunity to educate the public about anesthesia safety, questions to ask prior to undergoing surgery, and the benefits of receiving anesthesia care from a nurse anesthetist. To learn more about the AANA, visit www.aana.com.
About the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
Founded in 1931 and located in Park Ridge, Ill., the AANA is the professional organization representing more than 49,000 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and student registered nurse anesthetists. As advanced practice registered nurses, CRNAs safely administer approximately 40 million anesthetics to patients in the United States each year. For more information, visit www.aana.com/crnaweek.
