• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Anesthesia debate heats up in Florida

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, April 14, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

Florida anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists are butting heads about whether to allow anesthesiology assistants to practice in the state, according to the April 10 St. Petersburg Times.

Nurse anesthetists believe the assistants aren't qualified to administer anesthesia and could jeopardize patient safety if they are allowed to do so. However, anesthesiologists say the assistants are as well-trained as the anesthetists and licensing them would help the state's anesthesia provider shortage.

Both sides of the debate have published charts comparing assistant training to anesthetist training, but the charts don't match up, according to the article.

The state Senate passed a bill to license the assistants but the state House still needs to vote on it.

Assistants are already licensed to practice in seven other states. They receive master's degrees with two years of specialized training, and although their duties are similar to nurse anesthetists, the assistants require greater supervision.

One of the main differences is that nurses must have at least one year of patient care experience before they can become anesthetists. The assistants are not required to have any patient care experience before they start administering anesthesia.

"We have a group of people who have absolutely no experience in healthcare at all. They can have a bachelor's degree in virtually anything," said John P. McDonough, director of anesthesiology nursing at Florida International University and president of the Florida Association of Nurse Anesthetists. "And in 24 months, these people are supposedly trained to administer anesthesia to patients. Would you like to be anesthetized by someone with 24 months of medical training?"

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive