Colorado To Allow Nurses To Give Anesthesia

ch 7 ^ | September 27, 2010 | Wayne Harrison

[george76]

Colorado has joined 15 other states in allowing advanced-practice nurses to administer anesthesia without a doctor's supervision.

Anesthesiologists fought the proposal, saying it would put lives at risk

[george76]

Governor Ritter changes rules on anesthesia .

http://www.newsfirst5.com/news/governor-ritter-changes-rules-on-anesthesia/

[FlingWingFlyer]

Just remember. A lot of nurses belong to the SEIU these days. Always remember to remove your voter registration card from your wallet before going in for surgery.

[HangnJudge]

It works until it doesn’t work...

The vast majority of anesthesia administration is quite routine
But when the feces hit the rotating ventilatory device...

[FormerACLUmember]

Anesthesia in the era of ObamaCare with second rate pretend doctors.

[Revolting cat!]

“Tell me, Sister Morphine, when are you coming round again?”

[MHGinTN]

Nurse (RN) Anesthetists already do most of the anesthesia in OR ... natural gas passers don’tchaknow.

[I still care]

I've been under a lot of anesthesia, and had some events. It's really important to have an experienced anesthesiologist there, who's really on the ball.

I've had bad and it nearly killed me. And the same thing happened at another time, and that doctor brought me through it easily and with no sequeli. Of course, she had more warning because of the first event, but just the same...

[Seaplaner]

In a few years, the epidemiology on RN-provided anesthesia might be most interesting.

[SaraJohnson]

This is dangerous.

[RepublicanMeansAmerican]

Here...we...go. The country will see dozens of changes in the medical industry—NONE of which are good.

[Seaplaner]

This is dangerous.

Absolutely so.

There is a vast difference between (1)understanding intimately how the human organism reacts to sleep promoting drugs, and how to maintain artificial sleep without sliding away from biochemical equilibrium, and how to revive patients who might have undiagnosed disease or who might react in severe and perhaps unusual ways to anesthetic ...and...

(2) memorizing some procedures.

.

[kcvl]

“The vast majority of anesthesia administration is quite routine
But when the feces hit the rotating ventilatory device...”

Exactly. Or when a surgeon doesn’t want to take the time to tube the patient and they start chocking.

I used to work for an Anesthesiologist. Their job is a thankless one until the patient is in trouble.

[SaraJohnson]

There is no way a nurse is touching anyone in my family like this. Leave it to the US to totally screw up medicine as they “bring change” to health care. We will make the Brits’ Nationalized system look like the picture of first world health care in no time.

[radiohead]

My stepfather was a litigator with a number of medical malpractice cases over the years. The most devastating cases were anesthesiologist malpractice. Wanna get effed up real bad and still ‘live’? - have a pi$$ poor anesthesiologist during your surgery.

[FreedomForce]

I barely trust doctors to administer anaesthesia. And now they’re going to let nurses do it? That makes me a little nervous.

[StayoutdaBushesWay]

Oh cool, I’m an Echocardiographer, I guess the next step for me will be to do open heart surgery /sarcasm

[sprotte]

George your comment is totally outrageous and out of line. I have been a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist for 15 years and have yet to meet another CRNA who is a member of the SIEU. In fact the ones I know and work with can't stand that outfit.
I work under the supervision of a group of anesthesiologists but I rarely have to be “supervised”, or in other words, told what to do. There are rules established by Medicare the docs I work for have to follow when they supervise me, but I have never had one of my docs come into my OR and tell me I was doing something wrong.
I have worked independently without an anesthesiologist's supervision when I was in the USAF Reserves. In fact most anesthesia administered in the military hospital system and the VA is by highly trained CRNAs. One of my colleagues was a Delta Force CRNA during the first Desert Storm. He worked totally unsupervised.
I have worked unsupervised at a small rural hospital in my state to cover for a friend of mine who needed some much deserved time off. He provides quality anesthesia at a rural facility and is on call 24/7. I agreed to help him out so he could take a vacation. I worked my tail off for a week. I had every thing from a 14 month old with a full stomach, very dangerous, who needed an emergency procedure done at 2AM to an elderly lady who had a muscular dystrophy syndrome that needed a bowel resection. I did these and other more routine procedures totally unsupervised except by the surgeon who signed my charts. Almost all anesthesia done in rural hospitals are also done by CRNAs.

[sprotte]

If you or anyone in your family has had surgery in the last 25 years there is a 90% chance the anesthetic was delivered by a CRNA “supervised” by an anesthesiologist. I have worked in major medical centers and in smaller more rural facilities and I can assure you this is the primary practice model in the country.
I have delivered over 10,000 general anesthetics and have done over 2000 epidurals for labor and C/sections without ever having an “event” which would bring about litigation. Like any field there are poor practitioners. I've worked with some terrible anesthesiologists and CRNAs that I wouldn't let touch any one I knew.
The majority of practitioners however are very competent.
CRNAs go though extremely demanding training and have to pass a National Certification Exam before we can start practicing. Though the training is not as long and we don't go to Med School, the program I attended we took some of the same classes as the med students taught by the same professors. These included: pharmacology, physiolgy and pathophysiology. The professors always commented on how much they enjoyed teaching our classes because as Critical Care ICU nurses we had advanced real world “knowledge” of what was being discussed in class. Unlike most of the med students, “who sat in their chairs like stones waiting to learn something to memorize”.

[Lancey Howard]