As a Certified Registered Nurse anesthetist we perform a dual responsibility to our patients and their families. A nurse and an advanced practitioner.
Our patients are at a vulnerable state where they are undergoing a tough time. In an instance of a pediatric patient, the CRNA has the opportunity to meet families before their children goes to sleep with general anesthesia. Often times patients are kept NPO and the time of the procedure gets pushed back to compensate for the teeming amount of patients in our hospitals. As the CRNA we are not only performing anesthesia we are both the nurse and the anesthetist. It is our duty to alleviate anxiety physically and emotionally.
We have the nursing touch of comforting patients through a tough time in their lives, for this one procedure or two. It is our duty as a CRNA to educate patients on how they will feel and to hold their hand and provide them the voice of comfort and smiling face ensuring that they have made it through this.
It is our duty to assess and find out their history. What pain regimen or sedation have worked in the past to provide optimal comfort. It is important that we as the CRNA are the listeners and often learn from our patients and family as they do in fact know themselves the best.
In the field we are our patients advocates and always keep patient safety as our top priority. As a CRNA we do not forget nursing basics, we build up on them. We are CRNAs also promote lifelong learning and enforce evidence based practice in our routines.
In addition, CRNAs give back to the community and provide our services to third world and disaster relief areas.
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