Nurse Anesthetists

A baby was just born at 26 weeks gestation. Just over half the normal 40 weeks a baby should stay inside the mother. The baby is immediately whisked away and taken to be evaluated and prepared for a long journey ahead. Ever since I could remember babies and the nursery at the hospital have fascinated me. Whenever we would go visit a friend who had a baby, I would find myself peaking over the windows into the nursery. I have known for a while that working in the neonatal intensive care unit is what I want to pursue. Recently I have been looking into nurse practitioners and furthering my education beyond my BSN. Being able to care for these infants in the most critical stages of their life, and being able to provide them the support they need to survive outside the womb seems so satisfying . Neonatal nurse practitioners have years of education, deep history, detailed job description, high demands and some legal issues.

As the years go by, the nursing field is expanding. Different types of nurses are being needed for a variety of jobs in the nursing field. This field of work is especially one of the most important because the world will always need nurses. Although the nursing field is very competitive to get into, the need for nurses increases rapidly as time goes on. A CRNA, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, is one of the most popular fields being practiced. A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist is a step further than a Registered Nurse. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are advanced nurses that specialize in anesthesia. CRNA’s provide anesthesia care for millions of patients in the United States of America. Anesthesia is a form of medicine that puts a person that is undergoing surgery to sleep while also numbing the pain. There are many steps in the process to becoming a CRNA, it is a very serious field, therefore it requires more experience and training.

Nursing is more than a profession taught by science. It is an art that the nurse refines through the creative use of oneself based on the skills and expertise, to transmit emotions and meaning to the patient. Nursing is a process that is subjective and requires interpretation, sensitivity, imagination and active participation. A core skill utilized by a nurse is advocacy, both for our patients and our profession. Our profession requires participation of advocacy at all levels of nursing, starting at the bedside and continuing all the way to nurses in legislation. To be a proficient patient advocate, the nurse must be able to assess the patient’s constant change in physical, psychological, spiritual, and social needs. I apply my knowledge

As a child, I dreamt of having a career in a medical field. Throughout my late elementary and middle school years, I wanted to become a Pediatrician. I remember this one memory from when I was younger. I was at a local Pediatric office getting my yearly checkup done and thought about how I wanted to be like Dr. Hletko (my family’s Pediatric Doctor). He has been my doctor since I was born. Anytime I was sick, he would be there to diagnose the problems and prescribed me my antibiotics to get better. Not only did he help me get better, but he also helped so many sick kids get healthy and I aspired to be like him one day. As I got older and started high school, I changed my career choice and wanted to become a Nurse Practitioner (APRN). APRN’s

Growing up my family had little to no money. My parents, immigrants from El Salvador, worked two jobs each. Home was a small space with a conjoined kitchen and living room. When Mom and Dad first arrived to America, they never imagined a child of theirs would become a university student. Coming to America itself was in their wildest dreams. To them, an education of that level was unattainable. Now, I represent my family wherever I go. I am at TWU for my family and for my dreams. One day, I will be the Nurse Practitioner I always envisioned. But more importantly, I will give my parents and my grandmother everything they never had. Now that I am older I comprehend the magnitude of their sacrifices. When I hear the name Texas Woman’s University,

It was an uneventful midmorning day, on the general medical floor; a list of patients already drawn out with what needed to be completed during our shift. A group of people huddled together discussing treatment plans and options. At that present time, rounding was just for physicians and physician assistants. But dietitians were recently included, so I got to watch as the providers presented their cases to one another. One individual stood out above the rest as she was presenting to her attending; she was confident, poised, and didn’t skip a beat during her presentation. Once the meeting was completed she sat down next to me and we started talking. She introduced herself as Becky, a physician assistant. Having never heard of the role before, she explained that she does examinations, diagnosing, carrying out investigations, as well as treatments and prescribing. Becky could tell I appeared very interested in this, and asked if I was able to spend some time shadowing to learn more about her role. The next patient she saw, I was able to go in the room with her and watch her examine a new patient, discuss his course of treatment, and follow up with the attending. She took me through the entire process of seeing a new patient from a PA perspective. That was all I really needed to get the wheels in my head turning for a new career.

Nurse anesthetists have been providing anesthesia care to patients in the United States for more than 150 years. The credential CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) came into existence in 1956. CRNAs are anesthesia professionals who safely administer approximately 40 million anesthetics to patients each year in the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) 2014 Practice Profile Survey. CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America, enabling healthcare facilities in these medically underserved areas to offer obstetrical, surgical, pain management and trauma stabilization services. In some states, CRNAs are the sole providers in nearly 100 percent of the rural hospitals. According to a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, anesthesia care is nearly 50 times safer than it was in the early 1980s. Numerous outcomes studies have demonstrated that there is no difference in the quality of care provided by CRNAs and their physician counterparts. CRNAs provide anesthesia in collaboration with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, podiatrists, and other qualified healthcare professionals. When anesthesia is administered by a nurse anesthetist, it is recognized as the practice of nursing; when administered by an anesthesiologist, it is recognized as the practice of medicine. Regardless of whether their educational background is in nursing or medicine, all anesthesia professionals give anesthesia the same way.

Association of perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) is a nonprofit organization that represents more than 160,000 perioperative nurses by providing nursing education, standards, and clinical practice resources-including the peer-reviewed, monthly publication-AORN Journal-to enable optimal outcomes for patients undergoing operative and other invasive procedures (ARON, 2015). The AORN organization focuses on best practice standards for quality patient care in the operating room. The OR setting is a fast pace environment that requires nurses to keep up on the latest technology, medicine, and positioning devices for the surgical patient. Nurses are advocates for patients during their surgical procedure to ensure safe and quality care. Our mission is to promote safety and optimal outcomes for patients undergoing operative and other invasive procedures by providing practice support and professional development opportunities to perioperative nurses (AORN, 2015).

Interviewing Reyes, Teresita a Registered Nurse, I learned how the decision that she will made together with her team, can affect the lives of so many people, regular people just like you and I. having to take a decision of closing a public place where general public benefits from it, a hospital, is a huge responsibility. However, if Reyes and her team are not careful about their decision, the lives of so many people can be at risk. I’ve learned how a process called “Survey” is a multistep guide that Reyes and her team are used to it, doing this mostly 30 times a year, they have already remember every single step of it. On the other hand, Reyes and her team are the most feared and somehow hated in the medical setting, this is because they have to make sure everyone of them are following the rules and guidelines established by the federal government.

My educational intentions and goals are to attend the University of Arizona and earn my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I then plan on gaining experience in nursing at a local hospital before applying to the Doctor of Nursing Practice program to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist. I plan on becoming a nurse anesthetist to serve those in pain and relieve patients of their pain. I have many life goals because I strive for many opportunities. A few of my life goals are to serve in college preparatory programs as a tutor or a program specialist, give a university commencement address, write a best-selling book, create a high school curriculum guide for students interested in becoming a CRNA, Earn my Bachelor’s and then a Master’s degree, travel, and most importantly advocate educating patients on how to treat their diseases and illnesses for the well-being of patients and care for others.

I definitely fantasize what my life will be like when i’m out of school and have my own money, house, and car just because to me having more leisure time sounds so relaxing and I know how materialistic that sounds but I also think of how I could use my money to travel and thats what I find myself thinking about the most. However, I know very well that you have to work for the things you want and so I do still dream of all those things above but it does drive me to finish school to become a nurse anesthetist even more everyday. In my opinion I am hard on myself now about focusing on school and making that a priority over everything else but with some leeway occasionally. Although the future is never certain I still try to live my life to the

You hear a distinct crashing sound in the near distance following a loud screeching noise while driving down a dimly lit road. As you are driving down the road you come upon a car wreck and you can see people that need your help. You jet out of your vehicle and immediately get your medical bag with all your instruments that you use to save lives. You have to react fast because the people that crashed have already lost a lot of blood and will not survive if they wait for the ambulance to arrive. You start the normal procedure by cutting off their clothes to find where the wounds are or anything that needs to be attended to. You try to cut off the blood flow and apply pressure to the wounds to slow down the amount of blood loss in the patient

Working in the medical field has always been a popular job, but it’s not an easy one. There are many routines to uphold and if you aren’t good with organization, then working in the hospital isn’t for you. I have chosen a career path to be a nurse anesthetist and this essay will tell you why.

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) is the world’s largest specialty nursing organization (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). There are more than 100,000 practicing nurses that are members of the AACN (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The purpose of the AACN is to provide expert knowledge to critical care nurses to create a healthcare system that is driven by the needs of patients and their families (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). Their mission is to promote and enhance consumer health and safety by establishing and maintaining high standards of professional practice (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The headquarters for the organization

Preceptorship is defined as “a period of practical experience and training for a student, especially of medicine or nursing, that is supervised by an expert or a specialist in a particular field.” (Preceptor in Medicine, n.d.). As a nursing professional, I have fulfilled both the role of a preceptor and a preceptee. Each role requires a certain aptitude with the goal of acquiring knowledge and skills essential in the clinical setting. This essay aims to explore my experiences of preceptorship as a student registered nurse anesthetist (SRNA), the current literature and new developments regarding preceptorship/mentorship in Nurse Anesthesia education.