UNLABELLED One of the most controversial issues in anesthesia is whether nonmedically directed nurse anesthetists are relatively more cost-effective than anesthesiologists in the provision of anesthesia care. We electronically surveyed anesthesia practices throughout the United States to estimate the range in anesthesia professional costs from the payer perspective. Using this survey data on an...

BACKGROUND Persistently variable success has been experienced in locally translating even well-grounded national clinical practice guidelines, including in the perioperative setting. We have sought greater applicability and acceptance of clinical practice guidelines and protocols with our novel Perioperative Risk Optimization and Management Planning Tool (PROMPT™). This study was undertaken to ...

Helen Lamb was born September 28, 1899, in Butler, Mo, a small town about 60 miles south of Kansas City, Mo. Her mother was Anna Catherine Judy and her father, Leslie Lamb, was a physician in Butler. Helen received her nurses training at Christian Church Hospital, Kansas City, Mo, and she received her registered nurse license in 1921. Later, training in the art and science of anesthesia took pl...

This study examines the important contributions of clinical faculty toward the education of the future workforce of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). Differences in workload, work activities and income among clinical faculty, academic faculty and nonfaculty are examined. This is Part 2 of a 2-part column. Part 1, published in the April 2008 AANA Journal discussed salaries, recrui...

R egional anesthetic procedures are significantly more difficult to learn than basic manual skills that are necessary for a general anesthetic. Currently, no studies have been done to determine whether there is enhanced learning by measuring the difference in the number of successful spinal placement attempts, the time it takes to place the spinal needle, and the time when proficiency is reache...

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in a 2009 report, showed that unqualified nonphysicians performed 21% of the services. These nonphysicians did not possess the necessary licenses, certifications, credentials, or training to perform the services. Since the time the medical profession was founded, advances in treatments and technology, as we...

Stress is a response to change from the norm. Stress affects all individuals to varying degrees and can be positive, such as eustress, or negative, such as distress. The purpose of this qualitative, cross-sectional study was to investigate the stressors of the typical student registered nurse anesthetist (SRNA), with the objective of identifying trends in the perceptions, manifestations, and co...

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of social networking (Facebook) among nurse anesthetists. We examined whether they would have concerns about their supervisor, patients, or physicians seeing their Facebook profile. We also examined their attitudes related to maintaining professional boundaries with regard to the initiation or receipt of Facebook "friend" requests from their supe...

www.aana.com/aanajournalonline Our Tormenters Have Been Chastised by Their Peers: Lucy Richards and the AANA To the editor: A beautiful blackand-white photograph of AANA Past President Lucy Richards appeared on the cover of the April 2014 issue (Vol. 82, No. 2). On page 92 of that issue, a blurb containing just 2 sentences traced the photograph to a brochure published by the AANA in 1956 entitl...