South Texas VA Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas employs 15 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), that complete roughly 250 procedures every month, and assist on another 160. The following images come from an average day in the surgical ward at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital.
The educational collaboration with AMEDD comes naturally to the South Texas VA CRNA's because 90 percent of them are Veterans, so they speak the same language.
The professional and competent CRNAs featured in these photos go through an intense certification process and must fulfill the following requirements to reach CRNA status.
- Bachelors Degree in Nursing
- Hold a Registered Nurse's License
- Minimum of one year in acute care
- Letters of reference
- Completion of 2 -3 years of a U.S. accredited CRNA school
- Successfully pass the National Certification exam
400 PROCEDURES EVERY MONTH
The surgical Service at South Texas VA Medical Center is one of the busiest in the largest healthcare system in the U.S., and the anesthesia department is the tip of the spear, performing over 400 procedures monthly using a team model of anesthesiologists, CRNA's and anesthesiology residents. CRNA's complete about 250 of them. That level of competence comes with years of knowledge and training. South Texas patients benefit from their 329 years of experience in anesthesia, and even more in nursing and patient care.
Credits:
Steve Goetsch