Rich History Defines CRNAs, America’s Original Anesthesia Experts

By Laura Wiggins, DNP, CRNA

🔹🔹🔹National CRNA Week debuted as an annual commemoration in 2000 as a way to celebrate our nation’s Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and nurse anesthesia students. But the history of our profession stretches back generations.

Nurse anesthesiology traces its origins to 1863, when nurses eased the suffering of wounded soldiers in the Civil War. Since then, nurse anesthetists have been the main providers of anesthesia care to U.S. military personnel on the front lines and remain the primary anesthesia providers in austere combat theaters.

Today, there are nearly 66,000 CRNAs and nurse anesthesia students nationwide, including more than 3,700 in Pennsylvania.

🔹In times of transition and strife, people look to nurses—and, more specifically, highly trained CRNAs—to bridge the gaps of care, offer compassion to those who need help, and ensure the safety of patients during their most vulnerable times. You bring the art and science to the practice of anesthesia, and the work you do to serve our profession so honorably and your patients so faithfully ultimately enhances the patient’s experience.

🚧 In today’s environment, with health-care overhauls, organizational mergers and changes, redesigned care systems, and fluctuating payment models and costs, patients can rely on CRNAs who demonstrate as the foundation of their practice these core values—integrity, accountability, trustworthiness, and community service. You should be proud of what you do.

As we transition through a global economic crunch and continue to emerge from the global pandemic, enhancing our personal emotional intelligence and well-being is becoming an increasingly essential component of our practice. Having self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and empowerment skills, combined with these other core values, will only strengthen our ability to care more compassionately for our patients.

I am confident in the direction of our association and profession. CRNAs are leaders. We have been there from the beginning, as military necessities on the front lines of our nation’s wars, and we continue to build the teams necessary to serve, because we have the backbone, drive, and fortitude to fight, protect, and defend our patients, our communities, and our nation.

🩺 Looking back at the last 160 years, CRNA history is nursing history. It’s women’s history. It’s our nation’s history. So, let’s celebrate our rich past, but let’s not overlook our promising future. With your passion and commitment to our profession, America’s original anesthesia experts will continue to build trust, show compassion, provide stability, and create hope in the health-care system adjusting, adapting, and overcoming with finesse and grace.

😷 Thank you for all you do—and happy CRNA Week, Pa.! PANA would love to join in YOUR celebration of our profession, so if you're on social media, you can tag @panacrna on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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PANA PRESIDENT: Enhanced Leadership, Increased Engagement, Mentorship Key to Growing Profession

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:

Laura Wiggins, DNP, CRNA

Lt. Col. (R), U.S. Air Force

It is a pleasure and honor to be assuming the role of President of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA). I am looking forward to serving the membership in the upcoming year. There certainly is no shortage of work to do.

Our Government Relations Team and Government Relations Director, Jessica Poole, are confronting several issues in Harrisburg. I attended a meeting there Oct. 27 with the Department of State and the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs on behalf of PANA and our members. During this meeting, they discussed the antiquated PALS system and license renewals within the state of Pennsylvania. PANA is trying to determine how our new title designation will be processed through this system, or any other system the state develops. We learned several things at this meeting, but the most important thing is not to delay renewing any licenses. Get them done as soon as you receive notification because there will be obvious growing pains in activating a new system and removing the old PALS system.

As your new PANA President, I am setting the following goals for our association:

• Enhance the leadership of the board of directors;

• Increase member engagement; and

• Mentor our future leaders

I think as CRNAs we are experts at patient care and clinical competence. I feel that we are sometimes lacking in the leadership realm. I hope to improve on this within our board by encouraging participation in the AANA Leadership Summit and offering other leadership training throughout the year. Advocacy continues to be one of our main priorities, especially during an election year. We need to be out in front, meeting with our legislators and forming long-lasting relationships with legislative aides, legislators and lobbyists to solidify our position on various health-care issues that will present themselves within the coming year. Leadership in this area is a priority and necessity. We are fully expecting legislation to be re-introduced in the next session, which begins in January 2023, to license anesthesiologist assistants (AAs) for the first time in Pennsylvania. The connections and relationships we form now with lawmakers will be extremely important in helping us maintain our position and will help us with gains in propelling the profession forward.

I also hope to increase member engagement by communicating with members directly on issues that affect our profession. PANA’s Communications Director, Sarah Trau, will help facilitate this huge undertaking. She will be working with the team at Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy to make sure our members are in the know and kept informed. My hope is that as we increase engagement, more members will participate in district events and other educational activities and political action committee (PAC) events.

Finally, mentoring our future leaders is extremely important in ensuring the ongoing success and trajectory of the profession. Please encourage student involvement at every level of participation! I am motivated and encouraged by the excitement and enthusiasm of the SRNAs we have on the PANA board. Hopefully, their enthusiasm is contagious and will be felt by all of the members in the coming months.

I remain committed to helping this profession succeed in this time of uncertainty. With change there is always room for opportunity. Advancing our profession is worth the fight. If you have any ideas or suggestions for upcoming PANA events or want to know how to contact your legislators, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am looking forward to working with all of you and serving this association.

PANA Testifies Before House Committee on CAA Legislation

Department of State opposes licensing CAAs in Pa.

Members of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) testified today before the House Professional Licensure Committee to oppose legislation (H.B. 1956) that would license Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants (CAAs) for the first time in Pennsylvania.

Testifying were Jessica Poole DNAP, CRNA, director of State Government Affairs for PANA and lead Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) at BPW Medical Associates, P.C.; Matthew McCoy DNP, CRNA, past president of PANA and assistant director of the Crozer Chester Medical Center/Villanova University Nurse Anesthesia Program; and Christopher A. Heiss, MSN, CRNA, a PANA trustee and a CRNA practicing everywhere from large tertiary care facilities to rural critical access hospitals throughout Pennsylvania.

VIEWING OPTIONS:

VIEW THE HEARING IN ITS ENTIRETY:

VIEW ON PA HOUSE GOP'S LIVESTREAM SITE:

PANA’s testifiers urged the committee to oppose the legislation. House Bill 1956 will not improve patient safety or enhance care. It will not reduce health-care costs, but instead, contribute to costlier care models. And it will not improve access to anesthesia services or address critical care shortages in underserved areas.

There is no meaningful research data concerning CAA anesthesia safety. Because CAAs must be directly supervised by an anesthesiologist, the provider redundancy of the CAA/anesthesiologist team is one of the costliest anesthesia delivery models. That also greatly limits their utilization in rural and underserved communities where anesthesiologists don’t practice.

GET ALL THE FACTS ABOUT H.B. 1956 HERE

The Pennsylvania Department of State also testified and opposed the licensing standards, noting that the agency “views creating another licensure class for professionals who are already nationally credentialed as repetitive and unnecessary.” The department also made clear that “CAAs would appear to fall within the definition of technician. While the practice acts and board regulations do not prohibit CAAs from practicing in the Commonwealth, the Department of State and the State Board of Medicine do not have the authority to regulate hospitals and other health care facilities. That authority falls under the Department of Health, in the Health Care Facilities Act.

A representative from the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) also testified. Although HAP did not oppose the legislation, the organization did call for allowing CRNAs to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training to increase the number of qualified anesthesia providers in Pennsylvania.

Out-of-state CAAs also testified with Pennsylvania-based anesthesiologists.

VIEW ALL TESTIMONY

JESS POOLE

Poole Final.pdf

Download PDF • 152KB

MATT MCCOY

Matt McCoy Final.pdf

Download PDF • 164KB

CHRISTOPHER HEISS

Heiss - HPLC Testimony - Final.pdf

Download PDF • 73KB

PA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

4.25.22 - HPLC Testimony -DOS HB1956.pdf

Download PDF • 106KB

This is only the first step in a long legislative process. The hearing was informational only and the committee did not vote on the measure, which means under consideration. (Legislation must be approved by the committee before it goes to the full House for consideration.) No legislation has been introduced in the state Senate.

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