ASA/AANA Procedural Guidelines
As you know, last year the American Society of Anesthesiologists
and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
began a process to develop a line of communication
and an ongoing respectful relationship between our
two professional organizations. As part of this process
we have been working on developing procedural guidelines
that will act as a framework for this evolving relationship.
These guidelines were formalized and approved by
both organizations last August in a joint meeting
of the AANA Board of Directors and the ASA Administrative
Council. These two groups met again for an all day
meeting in February 2005 and agreed that it was time
to make this document public to all of our members.
The document is titled, Procedural Guidelines
for the Leadership of the American Association of
Nurse Anesthetists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (Procedural
Guidelines). A
copy of the Procedural Guidelines is included for
your use. Both organizations are
also publishing this document on their respective
Web sites for member access as well.
Development of the Procedural Guidelines has been
a difficult but necessary journey. However, it is
important for leaders and members of each organization
to realize that we have only just met our objective
to develop an ongoing line of communication to allow
us to discuss important issues. We are asking all
of our members to set realistic expectations as to
the impact this first step can have. We have begun
to talk but we have just started to scratch the surface
of the deep-rooted issues between our members and
our organizations. The Procedural Guidelines recognize
that we will not agree on every issue, and that respectful
disagreement may be the best we can do. However,
we are committed to keeping the line of communication
open so that we can work together on issues impacting
both professions and the broader healthcare environment,
like patient safety and liability reform.
The leadership of both groups will be meeting again
soon, and we will be looking at setting new objectives
and scheduling future meetings. We recognize that
there are many contentious issues that are still
being played out at both the national and state levels.
The ASA and AANA leadership have begun to address
significant issues like the anesthesia care statement,
problematic payment regulations, supervision, workforce
and work-environment issues, patient safety issues,
faculty retention and recruitment, Medicare reimbursement
and teaching rules. These are complex issues, and
we do not pretend to have easy answers or quick fixes
to these long-standing issues. We have begun to address
some of these issues at a national level, and we
encourage our state organizations to work together
to try to discuss the issues that are impacting them
on a local basis as well. We are aware of one state
in which the two organizations have committed to
meeting and developing an ongoing relationship that
will allow them to discuss issues of common concern.
We are hopeful that other state component organizations
will begin similar discussions.
Please take time to review these guidelines so that
as leaders and members, you have a better understanding
of the process in which we have been involved over
the past year and you will have a better sense of
the how the process will work in the future. As always
we are interested in your feedback and questions.
Thank you for your past support and for your continued
understanding of the need to maintain a respectful
line of communication between our organizations.
Eugene P. Sinclair, M.D., ASA President
Copies to:
ASA Directors
Component Society Presidents
Component Society Secretaries