Finding Health & Wellness During a Pandemic

It’s hard to believe, but CRNA Week in Pennsylvania this year is starting to look and feel a lot like CRNA Week last year.

We may not be locked down in 2022 like we were in 2021, but hospitals and health-care facilities once again are facing critical staffing shortages, with some areas setting COVID-19 case records.

Clearly, the pandemic is not finished. The dizzying speed of omicron’s spread has left everyone scratching their heads and questioning what they know about COVID-19.

Through it all, certified registered nurse anesthetists have remained on the frontline, putting their advanced education and training to work to care for critically ill patients.

This year, CRNA Week in Pennsylvania is a tribute to every nurse anesthetist who courageously has stepped forward to serve during this pandemic and who works daily to save lives and provide the best possible care in a variety of settings.

Thank you for all you do to serve our profession so honorably and your patients so faithfully.

All of us are under enormous pressure. To be the most effective we can be, however, we need to ensure we take care of ourselves, so we are able to care for others.

One of my top priorities as PANA president is promoting health and wellness.

Health and wellness have always been important in our profession, but they take on a new meaning during this prolonged pandemic, as health-care providers, including CRNAs and SRNAs, confront a disproportionate share of physical and emotional strain.

Self-care in the workplace and at home is essential. Health and wellness issues span a wide spectrum --- from finding ways to reduce risks and limit stress on the job to making positive choices and managing lifestyles to improve health and fitness.

We are best for others when we are at our own personal best.

PANA values the importance of pillars, which is why you will see more health and wellness activities incorporated into regular meeting, lectures, and spring and fall meetings. Now more than ever, we need to support each other.

I hope CRNA Week in Pennsylvania offers you a time to reflect and celebrate the work we do.

Please share your stories with PANA and your peers, and tag #CRNAinPA on Facebook and Twitter so we can add them to our collections. While you’re at it, visit our new Instagram page, @PANACRNA, which launched this week. Tag us here, too, and show us what you’re doing.

Thank you for stepping forward to serve during this pandemic, for proving yourselves as battle-tested providers on the frontlines at home and in combat, and for fighting to ensure access to safe, cost-effective anesthesia care each and every day.

Lew Bennett, DNP, CRNA

President

Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists

Senate Passes Professional Designation Legislation for CRNAs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Kurt Knaus; P: 717-724-2866; E: kurt@ceislermedia.com

Senate Passes Professional Designation Legislation for CRNAs

House passed identical measure Tuesday, moving provision closer to law than ever before

HARRISBURG (June 16, 2021) --- The state Senate today unanimously passed legislation that would finally grant formal title recognition to certified registered nurse anesthetists in Pennsylvania, just a day after the House passed a nearly identical measure.

This marks the first time that both chambers have passed bills granting professional designation to CRNAs, and it is the farthest the issue has ever made it through the General Assembly despite more than a decade of legislative review.

One of the measures still must pass the other chamber before going to the governor for his signature, but the fact that identical bills have passed both the House and Senate is a significant achievement and potentially hopeful sign for enactment.

“We have seen more movement on these measures in the last seven days than we have in the last 10 years --- or ever, really,” said Matt McCoy, DNP, CRNA, President of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA), which represents more than 3,700 CRNAs and students in the commonwealth. “This has been a long and hard fight, but I’m hopeful that we are finally on the cusp of getting CRNAs the recognition they deserve.”

Pennsylvania is one of just two states that fails to formally recognize “certified registered nurse anesthetist” in some form. Because there is no definition for nurse anesthetists under the state’s Professional Nursing Law, CRNAs are recognized only as registered nurses, despite their advanced education and specialized training.

The lack of that professional designation brings logistical and financial challenges for CRNAs.

Pennsylvania-based nurse anesthetists who serve in the military must secure designation in another state to provide anesthesia in the armed services. They cannot assist on rapid response teams in states affected by natural disasters because they lack formal credentials. And, after receiving training in Pennsylvania, many nurse anesthetists relocate to states with full credentialing, contributing to the state’s “brain drain” of talented health-care professionals.

The pandemic revealed additional shortcomings.

In response to COVID-19, many CRNAs wanted to contribute more to the facilities where they work but could not. Likewise, hospitals and other health-care institutions wanted to use CRNAs to their fullest capacity during a time of crisis but could not. Many facilities felt restricted by the way the state licenses CRNAs and would not allow nurse anesthetists to provide advanced, critical care services, even though it is within their clinical experience and scope of practice.

CRNAs are the hands-on providers of anesthesia care, operating safely in every setting where anesthesia is administered, including: hospital operating and delivery rooms; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, and plastic surgeons; pain management centers and more.

For more information about certified registered nurse anesthetists in Pennsylvania, visit www.PANAforQualityCare.com or follow along on social media via Twitter at @PANACRNA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PANACRNA.

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CRNAs Applaud HHS for Emergency Order Renewal

View Health Alert Online here.

Renewal of Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists

As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary, I, Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, pursuant to the authority vested in me under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, do hereby renew, effective April 21, 2021, the January 31, 2020, determination by former Secretary Alex M. Azar II, that he previously renewed on April 21, 2020, July 23, 2020, October 2, 2020, and January 7, 2021, that a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide. April 15, 2021 /s/

_____________________________ _____________________________

DATE Xavier Becerra