Question
Read the Institute of Medicine’s Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century Report recommendations. The article is attached, please use this article as the major article in the essay.
Describe the current role of the CRNA in health care delivery and how you believe this role will evolve during your career as a nurse anesthetist, after reviewing the Institute of Medicine’s report, Crossing the Quality Chasm. Add two other resources to support your essay. The two other resources have to be within the recent 5 years.
Answer
The Healthcare Environment
A certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) specializes in the administration of anesthesia. CRNAs are advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) that possess board certification and graduate-level education in the administration of anesthesia (Nagelhout&Plaus, 2014). For over a century, nurse anesthetists have been providing anesthesia care to patients all over the United States. They are also regarded as the oldest nurse specialty in the country. CRNAs are primarily involved in healthcare delivery. This essay discusses the role of CRNAs in healthcare delivery and projects on future changes on the same.
In the United States, the quality of health care delivery has been on the decline. This is why the Institute of Medicine (IOM) came up with certain recommendations aimed at eventually helpingto improve care quality. According toCrossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century Report, there are six main aims to target during healthcare improvementefforts: safety, efficiency, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, equitability and timeliness(Richardson et al., 2001). The IOM believes that any institution that takes these six areas into account will more likely be better at meeting the needs of their patients as compared to other healthcare institutions.Therefore, given that CRNAs are at the core of healthcare delivery, their pivotal role in following through with these aims cannot be overlooked.
CRNAs administer health care and anesthesia to patients during surgeries. It is estimated that they administer 27 million anesthetics every year in the United States alone (Tracey, 2015). Moreover, because of their level of education and specialization, CRNAs are able to make independent professional judgement regarding the needs of their patients. In fact, CRNAs are qualified enough to work as independent contractors and run their individual practices with the supervision of physicians. It is, however, worth noting that the CRNAs that run individual practices are accountable for every operation they undertake, both in terms of the administration process and adherence to professionals standards.
The scope of the medical practice is always changing. For this reason, the role of CRNAs is also bound to change in the future. During my career as a nurse anesthetist, I expect to see the scope of the contemporary practice to expand to the point where medically underserved patients from remote regions will be able to benefit profoundly from improved care quality. Although CRNAs add immensely to the aspect of cost-effectiveness not all medical facilities can afford a CRNA(Tracey, 2015). I believe that in the future, the current barriers that have been placed on the scope of practice and access to the services of these professionals will be lifted. This turn of events will not only ensure that more patients get access to quality health care but that the health care they receive will be more comprehensive.
In conclusion, CRNAs have a responsibility to remain abreast of changes in the profession in order to be able to address patients’ medical needs better. A major component of these changes will encompass technological developments aimed at improving not just the level of quality being offered to the medically underserved but also the level of access. Meanwhile, improving healthcare quality goes beyond the administration of anesthesia; it also encompasses cooperation with other medical professionals to oversee the success of all procedures. Quality healthcare can only be achieved if all stakeholders worktogether towards the same goal.
References
Nagelhout, J. J. &Plaus, K. L. (2014). Nurse anesthesia. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Richardson, W. C., Berwick, D. M., Bisgard, J. C., Bristow, L. R., Buck, C. R.& Cassel, C. K. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
Tracey, A. (2015). Student Nurse Anesthetists’ Views on CRNA Role Transition. Anesthesia EJournal, 3(1).
