ometimes an innocuous proofreading change can produce major negative connotations. In my original “Administrative Update” for the April 2005 issue, the sentence was to read, “The safe practice of anesthesia is both the practice of medicine and the practice of nursing.” A staff member changed “anesthesia” to “anesthesiology” in accordance with the general policy that we doctors practice “anesthesiology.” Clearly the change was not detected until the NEWSLETTER was circulated. More importantly it produced a dogmatically incorrect premise to which I would never espouse.

Nurse anesthetists have a long tradition of being identified as “anesthetists” or “nurse anesthetists.” The AANA and state licensing agencies have always certified nurses in the practice of “anesthesia,” a recognized practice of nursing.

Despite the error, I believe that both anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists, even in states where there are scope-of-practice battles, know my reputation for trying to accurately state the issues. In light of the attempts by ASA and AANA to conduct interactions in a respectful manner, I believe that CRNAs will not embellish this obvious editorial error that will soon be corrected.

The message of the “Update,” that we should seek to jointly protect the realms of anesthesia practice from interlopers while we continue to address our differences, should not be diluted by this incorrect word substitution. For those who wish to have the corrected version, the following link will send you to the ASA Web site: <www.ASAhq.org/Newsletters/2005/04-05/admin04_05.html>.