Executive Summary -- About AANA, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists

Friday, November 20, 2009

About AANA

CRNA Professional Info

Executive Summary

Nurse anesthetists have been providing quality anesthesia services in this country for more than a century. The longevity of their practice can be attributed directly to their commitment to excellence and patient safety, their willingness to provide services when and where needed, and the provision of those services at reasonable cost.

This series of documents was prepared to assist policymakers, health care administrators, health care insurers, and the public to better understand the role of nurse anesthetists and their potential to reduce health care costs while maintaining high quality health care. The following documents highlight important aspects of the nurse anesthesia profession.

Today, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) working with anesthesiologists, physicians such as surgeons and, where authorized, podiatrists, dentists, and other health care providers, administer approximately 65% of all anesthetics given each year in the United States. CRNAs provide anesthesia for every age and type of patient, using the full scope of anesthesia techniques, drugs, and technology which characterize contemporary anesthesia practice. They work in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered: tertiary care centers, community hospitals, labor and delivery rooms, ambulatory surgical centers, diagnostic suites, and physician offices. CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in more than 70% of rural hospitals, affording anesthesia and resuscitative services to these medical facilities for surgical, obstetrical, and trauma care.

Early in their history, nurse anesthetists were challenged by lawsuits claiming they were illegally practicing medicine. Landmark decisions in Kentucky (1917) and California (1936) established that they were, in fact, practicing nursing, not medicine. Today, more than 30,000 CRNAs practice in all 50 states, providing anesthesia services to all segments of the population including substantial numbers of Medicare, Medicaid, public employee, veteran, and indigent populations.

CRNAs are well versed in the health care trends sweeping this country including a restructured health care system of managed care. CRNAs strongly support comprehensive health care reform, increasing affordability, maximizing patient access, and promoting anesthesia payment reform which controls cost and maintains quality. CRNAs support patient choice. The nurse anesthesia profession advocates continued support for public and institutional policy which enables maximum use of CRNAs and their ability to work within their full and legal scope of practice. Their record of patient safety is excellent.

Nurse anesthetists are educated in the specialty of anesthesia at the graduate level that encompasses an integrated program of academic and clinical study. Based on their sophisticated body of knowledge, CRNAs are licensed and certified to practice anesthesia. In addition, they must meet the requirement of recertification every two years. As such qualified providers, CRNAs are eligible to receive reimbursement for their services directly from Medicare, nearly half of all Medicaid programs, Civilian Health and Medical Program of Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS), and a multitude of private insurers and managed care organizations.

The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) is the sole professional association of the nation's nurse anesthetists. Founded in 1931, the AANA has issued educational and practice standards and guidelines, developed and implemented a certification and mandatory recertification program, and developed a nationally recognized program for accreditation of nurse anesthesia educational programs. Since 1975, credentialing of nurse anesthesia educational programs and the credentialing of nurse anesthetists has been a function of the AANA autonomous multidisciplinary councils. The AANA is actively involved in the development of federal and state health care policy and offers consultation and other data sources regarding CRNA practice to both public and private entities. Specific information on the practice of nurse anesthetists not found in this series of white papers is available from the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 222 South Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, Illinois, 60068-4001. Phone: 847-692-7050. Fax: 847-692-6968.

Document adopted by the AANA Board of Directors in June 1993, revised January 1997.