Colorado professional organization has rich history of service to nurses in Colorado communities
The Colorado Association of Nurse Anesthetists (CoANA) is proud to celebrate its 80th anniversary of service to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) in the state of Colorado during the month of May. CoANA was founded in 1936 as a professional organization to support the 500-plus CRNAs who practice in Colorado. CoANA’s mission is to promote the best interests of its members, cooperate with the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, facilitate cooperation between nurse anesthetists and the medical profession, hospitals and other agencies interested in anesthesia and, in general, to advance the science and the art of anesthesia.
CRNAs are anesthesia experts who safely and cost-effectively provide approximately 40 million anesthetics each year. CRNAs provide anesthesia services in 99.9 percent of the counties in Colorado that have surgical services and are the sole anesthesia provider in 71 percent of the rural hospitals in Colorado. They are important members of the national healthcare workforce and in Colorado make a significant impact, especially in rural areas, military settings, as part of the patient care team at large urban hospitals, and in medically underserved areas across our state.
“We are proud of our long and rich history of serving CRNAs in Colorado,” stated CoANA President Dr. Lisa Pearson. “Nurse-administered anesthesia is a profession that has been at the forefront of anesthesia patient safety for 150 years. As advanced practice registered nurses, CRNAs play a key role in developing anesthesia care trends related to monitoring technology, anesthetic drugs, and standards of care that keep our patients comfortable and safe. In fact, due to continuing research and education, anesthesia today is nearly 50 times safer than it was in the 1980s.”
As a hands-on provider of anesthesia care to millions of patients each year, CRNAs practice in every setting in which anesthesia is administered. That includes, but is not limited to, hospital operating and delivery rooms; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons; pain management centers, and within the U.S. Military, Public Health Services, and Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. CRNAs are the sole anesthesia professionals in the vast majority of rural hospitals and have been the main provider of anesthesia care to U.S. service men and women on the front lines since World War I.
For more information visit www.coana.org or connect on Facebook @Colorado-Association-of-Nurse-Anesthetists.
###
About the Colorado Association of Nurse Anesthetists
The Colorado Association of Nurse Anesthetists (CoANA) is a professional organization supporting certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) in the state of Colorado. The goal of the organization is to promote the best interests of its members, cooperate with the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, facilitate cooperation between nurse anesthetists and the medical profession, hospitals and other agencies interested in anesthesia and, in general, to advance the science and the art of anesthesia. For more information visit www.coana.org or connect on Facebook @Colorado-Association-of-Nurse-Anesthetists.