Nurse anesthesia jobs

So what they do?It takes a lot of people to make a surgical procedure a success. Of course, the surgeon is important. So are the assisting doctors and nurses. But also critical to the outcome of any surgery is the anesthetist, who makes sure that a patient is safely anesthetized during an operation.


It's up to the nurse anesthetist to evaluate patients before surgery and assess their anesthesia risk factors. Anesthesia can be a very tricky thing, and in the past, one in every 10,000 patients who received anesthesia actually died as a reaction to the drugs. Today, that death rate has fallen to one in every 250,000, but anesthesia still can present other kinds of risks to patients. Consequently nurse anesthetists really have to know their stuff, collaborating with surgeons and anesthesiologists to determine the best means of delivering anesthesia for everything from tonsillectomies to open-heart surgeries. CRNAs also provide anesthesia for some radiology procedures as well as for office procedures in areas like dental and plastic surgery.

Most anesthesia drugs are either breathed into the lungs or injected into the veins through an intravenous line in the hand or arm. Nurse anesthetists administer these medications as well as any other medications used to prevent movement during procedures.


Nurse anesthetists closely monitor the patient during a procedure. They keep a sharp eye on oxygen levels in the blood, blood pressure, heart rate and other functions during an operation, making sure the patient's condition remains stable. If conditions should change--and vital signs can take a turn for the worse in a matter of seconds--they have to be prepared to react instantly. When the procedure is over and the medication is turned off, nurse anesthetists continue to monitor patients to make sure that there are no ill after effects from the anesthesia.

How they spend their time:

• Assessing and evaluating the patient before anesthesia is administered
• Obtaining consent for anesthesia
  Requesting consultations and diagnostic studies
• Selecting, and administering pre-anesthetic medication and fluids, anesthetics, and the drugs and fluids necessary to manage the anesthesia
• Collecting and interpreting patient’s medical information
• Monitoring and managing a patient’s respiratory status during procedure and after surgery