MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ANESTHETISTS Information

The Minnesota Association of Nurse Anesthetists is a statewide professional organization of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) dedicated to promoting the profession of nurse anesthetists. Nurse anesthetists have been providing anesthesia care to patients in the United States for 150 years. The credential CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) came into existence in 1956. CRNAs are anesthesia professionals who safely administer more than 34 million anesthetics to patients each year in the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) 2012 Practice Profile Survey. CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America, enabling healthcare facilities in these medically underserved areas to offer obstetrical, surgical, pain management and trauma stabilization services. In some states, CRNAs are the sole providers in nearly 100 percent of the rural hospitals. According to a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, anesthesia care is nearly 50 times safer than it was in the early 1980s.