How nurse anesthetists met a critical need at the Minneapolis VA

Recent reports about anesthesia staffing challenges at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center tell an important story about Minnesota’s healthcare workforce, and about professionals like nurse anesthetists who continued to care for veterans.

When physician anesthesiologists left the Minneapolis VA, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) stepped up. They stayed. They took on greater responsibility. And they helped keep operating rooms open and veterans receiving care. Their response reflects the role CRNAs play every day in communities across Minnesota.

CRNAs are advanced practice registered nurses educated and trained specifically to provide anesthesia care. They administer anesthesia, continuously monitor patients, respond to complications, and care for patients before, during and after procedures.

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Across Minnesota, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in 79 hospitals across 54 counties, including 97% of the state’s Critical Access Hospitals.

In many rural communities, CRNAs aren’t just part of the anesthesia workforce. They are the anesthesia workforce.

Every day, CRNAs make it possible for Minnesotans to have surgeries, access obstetric care, receive emergency procedures and obtain other essential medical care close to home. Their ability to provide the full range of anesthesia services is particularly important in communities where recruiting and retaining health care professionals can be challenging.

The Minneapolis VA offers another example of their importance.

Media reports have described a dramatic decline in the number of physician anesthesiologists at the Minneapolis VA, from 11 not long ago to one, supplemented by part-time and temporary coverage. But when those physicians departed, the VA did not suddenly lose its ability to provide anesthesia care.

Its CRNAs remained and continued caring for veterans.

At the request of VA leadership, CRNAs assumed greater responsibility, helped maintain access to anesthesia services, and allowed the hospital to continue caring for veterans while it dealt with a significant staffing shortage.

The experience highlights the importance of a health care system that makes full use of highly trained professionals to ensure patients maintain access to care. CRNAs have the education, clinical training and expertise to provide safe, high-quality anesthesia care independently, and they do so every day for patients across Minnesota.

That doesn’t mean CRNAs practice in isolation. Healthcare is inherently collaborative.

The staffing challenges at the Minneapolis VA affect everyone who cares for veterans. Physician anesthesiologists, CRNAs, surgeons, nurses and hospital leaders all share the same goal: ensuring veterans receive timely, high-quality care. The commitment and professionalism demonstrated by caregivers at the Minneapolis VA during this period deserve recognition.

CRNAs work collaboratively with other health professionals every day while also serving as independent anesthesia providers when appropriate. That flexibility helps ensure patients continue to receive care across a wide range of health care settings and circumstances.

Minnesota benefits from having that flexibility.

It is especially important outside our largest population centers. In rural Minnesota, maintaining anesthesia services can determine whether a hospital can continue providing surgery, obstetric care and other essential services. Without local anesthesia providers, patients may have to travel much farther for care, and hospitals can struggle to maintain services their communities depend upon.

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CRNAs help make that care possible.

The discussion about the Minneapolis VA should ultimately be about ensuring veterans continue receiving the excellent care they deserve. The VA has long been an important health care institution in our state, and all of us should want it to succeed.

Its CRNAs are helping make that happen.

The staffing circumstances at the Minneapolis VA may be unusual, but the larger story isn’t. Across Minnesota, CRNAs take responsibility for their patients every day, providing anesthesia care for procedures ranging from routine surgeries to complex cases.

From a major medical center in Minneapolis to a Critical Access Hospital in rural Minnesota, their mission is the same: providing patients with safe, high-quality anesthesia care when and where they need it.

Minnesotans should know how important CRNAs are to making that possible.

Robyn Finney is president of the Minnesota Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

The post How nurse anesthetists met a critical need at the Minneapolis VA appeared first on MinnPost.

Originally reported by MinnPost by By Robyn Finney. Read the full story at the source.