January 16, 2024

Four full-time Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) who provide services at Community Hospital will celebrate National Nurse Anesthetists Week, January 22-28 with the theme: “CRNA’s: The Original Anesthesia Experts.” Providing anesthesia services at Community Hospital are CRNAs, Ross Beavers, Evan Geilenkirchen, Gabe Scheer and Molly Walker, who joined Community Hospital’s team this summer.

As members of Community Hospital’s surgical, emergency, and pain management teams they provide services such as:

• General surgical anesthesia
• Monitored sedation for minor procedures
• Spinal blocks and epidurals for surgeries or childbirth
• Pain management injections for chronic or acute back pain
• Nerve blocks for post-surgical pain management

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are the oldest type of advanced practice nurses in America, licensed in all states, but relatively unknown outside the operating room. They may be considered the health care providers patients don’t recognize and don't remember, but as airway specialists, the 59,000 practicing nurse anesthetists in the U.S. are watching over patients, making sure they are breathing and feeling no pain during procedures.

Five Ways CRNAs Make a Difference Every Day:

1. Safety First - CRNAs are highly trained anesthesia professionals who safely provide over 49 million anesthetics to patients.
2. Rural America - CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America, enabling healthcare facilities in medically underserved areas to offer obstetrical, surgical, pain management and trauma stabilization services. In Nebraska, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in nearly 100 percent of rural hospitals.
3. Military Presence - Nurses first provided anesthesia to wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Since that time, nurse anesthetists have remained the primary providers of anesthesia care to U.S. military personnel on the front lines.
4. Practice Settings - CRNAs practice in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered: traditional hospital surgical suites; obstetrical delivery rooms; critical access hospitals; ambulatory surgical centers; offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons, pain management specialists; and any other facility in which a patient requires anesthesia care.
5. Cost-Efficiency - Managed care plans recognize CRNAs for providing high-quality anesthesia care with reduced expense to patients and insurance companies. This helps control the escalating healthcare costs across the United States.

CRNAs practice independently, are board certified, complete continuing education requirements and re-certify every two years.