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On August 14th, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) publicly changed its name to the “American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology”. ASA believes this name change combined with AANA’s continued encouragement of their members to use the term “nurse anesthesiologist” is a clear pattern of medical title misappropriation that confuses patients and creates discord in the care setting, ultimately risking patient safety.
ASA’s concerns about this title misappropriation are centered around the long-held medical ethics standard that patients have a right to know the education and qualifications of the professionals providing their care. In this spirit, the term “anesthesiologist” has been used to differentiate physicians who’ve completed the highest level of training in anesthesia care from non-physicians, including nurse anesthetists.
ASA recently authored an open letter asking nurse anesthetists to reject the AANA’s use of the “nurse anesthesiologist” title. ASA will continue to foster a strong relationship between anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists in their collaborative mission to provide the best care for their patients while challenging any attempt to sow confusion in the identification of roles or advance nurse-only care.
Click here for facts and background on this issue.
Click here for ASA’s news release.
Click here for ASA’s position statement.
