Continuing Education Programs for Nurse Anesthetists
Continuing education provides a means for learning new things and for deepening the existing education and skills you already have. CE courses are important for many jobs but they are particularly relevant for those who work in the healthcare field. A nurse anesthetist is a kind of advanced-practice nurse who has obtained education at the graduate level. These healthcare professionals hold the status of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).
Those who work as nurse anesthetists have a license that permits them to administer anesthesia to patients by way of spinal injections, inhalants or IVs for the purpose of sedation, either to alleviate pain or as a precursor to undergoing a surgical procedure.
What Does a Nurse Anesthetist Do
Nurse anesthetists must obtain relevant information about their patients before they give them anesthesia. This is necessary for them to know what type of anesthesia and what dosage will be the most effective and the safest. Once the anesthesia has been administered it is the nurse anesthetist’s job to monitor the vital signs of the patient. If heart rate or blood pressure decreases then the doctor must be notified immediately.
In order to keep their certification current all Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists must be willing to take continuing education courses. The first place you should look for this is the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA). The AANA keeps a database of approved continuing education credits that are available for all CRNA’s who need to renew their certification. To continue to work in this area you must take continuing education classes, be they online, in-person at a local university or college or a mixture of both types.
The AANA is a valuable resource that all nurse anesthetists should get better acquainted with. This organization offers continual reviews of CE programs and courses that are available to those medical professionals who need to take them. Another useful function that it provides is that it maintains attendance records for courses and provides certificates for those CRNAs who take the required courses.
It was in the year 1968 that the Board of Trustees of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists decided to make completion of CE courses a requirement for all Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists. This was done to guarantee that a national standard for education would exist in the occupation. Today the opportunity to take online continuing education courses for nurse anesthetists can make it easier to get the credits you need to recertify.
Continuing Education Requirements
The kinds of CE hours that nurse anesthetists are permitted to take for credit include planned educational programs, in-service programs, discussion tours, provider-directed independent study, as well as anesthesia research and anesthesia simulation. In order to receive credit for a CE course you take, whether it be online or offline you must submit an application to the AANA at least three months (90 days) before the date on which the program is to begin.