Observance highlights nurse anesthetists Published Jan. 22, 2009 By 81st Medical Group 81st Medical Group KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- "Providing Patients with the Professional Quality They Expect and the Personal Care They Deserve" is the theme of the 10th annual observance of National Nurse Anesthetists Week, Sunday through Jan. 31. Posters and tabletop displays are planned at several Keesler Medical Center clinics to mark the event. Established by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the observance encourages certfied nurse anesthetists to educate the public about anesthesia safety, questions to ask prior to undergoing surgery and the benefits of receiving anesthesia care from nurse anesthetists. "One of the many rewards of being a nurse anesthetist is providing patients with the comfort of knowing that I will be by their side monitoring their vital signs and adjusting their anesthetics during the entire time they are asleep, a fact many patients are unaware of," said Chris Orrell, a CRNA assigned to the 81st Surgical Operations Squadron. "National Nurse Anesthetists Week serves as an opportunity to promote exactly what CRNAs do and who we are." Nurse anesthetists administer about 30 million anesthetics in the U.S. each year. Practicing in every setting where anesthesia is available, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in more than two-thirds of all rural hospitals and have been the main provider of anesthesia care to U.S. service members on the front lines since World War I. "I'm proud to belong to a profession that has been at the forefront of anesthesia patient safety for more than 125 years," Mr. Orrell commented. "CRNAs play a key role in developing trends related to monitoring technology, anesthetic drugs and provider education. In fact, anesthesia today is nearly 50 times safer than it was just 20 years ago."