Nursing Careers: Becoming a Nurse Anesthetist in Canada
Posted by York RN on January 4, 2009
Nurse anesthetist will be the first career I will explore in this ongoing series. An anesthesia nurse works in an operating room to provide anesthesia to patients who must undergo surgical procedures.
Canada is currently quite far behind the United States in this career category. In fact, the US was exploring masters level nurse anesthetist programs as far back as the late 1970′s (source). The Ontario Government announced theirs in 2007.
Canada’s slow progression to develop a nurse anesthetist program is unfortunate. As the RNAO has stated, nurse anesthetists would be instrumental in decreasing surgical wait times (source).
In 2007, Ontario officially announced a joint program between the faculties of Nursing and Medicine at the University of Toronto to provide a curriculum required for nurse practitioner-anesthesia (source).
Today, there are nurse practitioner-anesthesia courses at the University of Toronto, but it is not clear if there are, as of yet, any practicing nurse anesthetists.
An alternative path for an RN is to become an anesthetist assistant. This career path was announced jointly with the nurse practitioner-anesthesia program in 2007 by Ontario (source).
The Michener Institute in Toronto currently provides a anesthesia assistant program. However, the CNO states that “while the role of anesthesia assistant is within an RN’s scope of practice, it is beyond the basic preparation of RNs and dependant on the direction and close supervision of an anesthesiologist” (source).
A masters prepared nurse practitioner-anesthetist, on the other hand, would function as an autonomous health-care professional.
York Student RN said
Thanks Dr. Brown for you comment. Do you think there will be practicing Nurse Anesthetists in Canada in the near future?
Nursing Careers: Becoming a Nurse Practitioner in Ontario « York Nursing News said
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Christina Hackman, CRNA said
I am a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, educated in the US. I am a US citizen, married to a Canadian. I was in the US Army Nurse Corps for 20 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel, CRNA. I recieved my MSN in Nursing Anesthesia after ~2.5 years at the Univ of Texas Houston Health Science Center. My program was extremely demanding and had a fairly high drop out rate as the completion standards were pretty high…I loved it and hated it!
It was the best thing I have done for my professional career. We were in class 5 days per week with 3 weeks off per year (Christmas, spring break and a week in the summer).My practice is extremely autonomous with a great deal of team collaberation from other health professional. We all work wonderfully as a team in order to provide the best anesthesia for our clients. I have lived in Canada since 2004. I average one week per month working in the states since I am unable to work in Canada.
I am always frustrated when I read articles from Canadian politicians or health care providers that attempt to explain what we CRNAs do or how our system works. Your article was the first that has come close to openely making suggestions or refering accurately to what we do.
Good luck to you. I suggest you go to the states and get your degree and work there. The professional reimbursement for your expertice, professional satisfaction and respect and education will be much more appreciated I believe. It seems to me that here in Canada they are trying to sell the “assistant” title to cover both RNs and RTs as if there is no difference…most of the public will buy this as they want to “believe” that a change is coming. I personally would not want a RT/AA giving me my anesthesia. There are significant studies done by non biased agencies on the safety of anesthesia given by CRNAs vs. anesthesiologists. Our professional organization is strong and has been around for a long time. Check out our AANA website. You will love it.
Again, good luck in your advanced professional pursuits.
York Student RN said
Dear Christina,
Thank you so much for your comment.
I hope that Canada will one day be able to catch up to the US standards for advanced nursing practice and opportunity. The US has set an excellent precedent for Canadian nurses to push for.
I agree, the “assistant” role also needs to be clearly defined. I think, to choose this path, may be a step back for RNs in autonomous professional practice.
Thanks again for your great comments,
Malcolm (York Student RN)
Emily Clarke said
I am will be going into my fourth year of a Bachelor of Nursing from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Sept. 09. Being so close to the end has been an added worry of what am I going to do now. This past Christmas break I was watching a Baby story on TV and a CRNA put the epidural in. I literally searched “nurse anesthetist” immediately after. I was really disappointed to find that CRNA’s can only be employed in the US. The only thing that is currently keeping me form 100% pursuing this career is that fact I could not come back to Canada. My biggest question is how long until Canada will be accepting this specialty? If I do decide to go down this road I will be a CRNA in 5-6yrs will they be accepted then?
thanks
Nurse Scrubs said
It’s always good to find like-minded people. Thanx and I’m going to add you to my RSS feed.
York Student RN said
Hi Emily,
A very good question. At the time of writing the article, there were no nurse anesthetists currently working in Canada, but there were ongoing programs. So..if my theory that we nursing will follow in the US footsteps is correct, perhaps there will be nurse anesthetists practicing in Canada sooner rather than later.
Good luck in your career.
Felix Chesterfield said
We certainly need good CRNAs. It’s one of the few fields where demand seems to still outweigh supply. Sites like http://www.unitedanesthesia.com/ show evidence that every state is still looking for qualified CRNAs (and willing to pay for them too). Hardly something that every industry can claim right now.
Abdeen Shams said
Dear Madam\Sr
I am an Operating Department Practitioner (Anaesthesia Paractitioner)working in the UK. I had my training in Operating Department Practice from Bedfordshire University\ England in 2008. Also,I qualified as Anaesthesia Practitioner from Al-Balqa University\ Jordan in 1989.
How can I join this course? And do I need to start from the begining doing the whole course?
Karla Grecia said
I am a Canadian citizen CRNA that is currently practicing in Houston, Texas. I would like to move back home but I’m prepared to drive to nearby Buffalo just to keep practicing as a CRNA. I think to push for AA practice in Canada is a concern. The AA’s that I have worked with are not previous RN’s nor do they have any background in healthcare field prior to being AA’s. Their undergraduate can be from any major (English, Social Studies, etc.) and they have their AA certification after 2-3 yrs of AA program. Most CRNA programs require critical care background anywhere from 1-3 yrs. AA’s have to be medically directed vs supervised by an anesthesiologist, and legally, the anesthesiologist have to be present for 8 critical events during an AA’s case, i.e. induction, incision, emergence, and so forth. Of course this is not always the case in the real world. It is 2 different tracks and nurses do not go into this program here in the US because it is not advantageous as far as career and financial choice for a seasoned nurse. Pay scales are different between CRNA’s and AA’s and some hospitals/physician groups will elect to hire only CRNA’s (due to reimbursement or malpractice coverage I am not sure). I think Canada has to define the 2 roles clearly because they are very different. To offer Canadian nurses the alternative path of an anesthesia assistant program will not only NOT utilize their nursing education and background, it is also insulting. I’ve been hoping for Canada to move towards having CRNAs but I think it’s going to take a long time before this happens because an autonomous nurse is just too difficult of an idea to understand.
Wendy Ouellette said
Hi Karla,
I’m also a Canadian CRNA who happens to work in Buffalo, and could assist you if you ever decided to return to Canada but wanted to continue your practice as a CRNA in the US.
As pertains to NP Anesthesia in Ontario I do know that the “role” was established as a new specialty in August of 2007. As I understand it, the College of Nurses (CON) has yet to regulate this role as they have done for the two other new roles that were established at the same time- NP Adult and NP Peadiatric. It has been suggested by HPRAC( Health Regulatory Advisory Coucil) which advises the Minister of Health that implementation of the role by deferred until the CON has developed entry to practice requirements, and a better definition of core competencies based on a graduate program in NP- Anesthesia.
This spring four NP- Adult practitioners graduated from the University of Toronto with a certificate in anesthesia. As I understand it, they would be regulated as Adult NP’s but would hold a certificate in anesthesia, perhaps this is a roundabout way of practicing. I do not know if to practice NP-Anesthesia you would have to hold a graduate degree as NP-Adult .
What I do know is that no educational program exists in Ontario that would prepare a nurse to practice as we do as CRNA’s, providing the full range of anesthetic care to a broad spectrum of patients, in an interdisciplinary environment.
Many regulatory roadblocks exist and I’m not sure what if any work is occurring on this front. Interestingly Physician Assistants were fast tracked and within two years are being fully integrated into the health care sector.
Bee said
I am a registered nursing looking to do this program. I am a little confuse because i only know the program as AA however i noticed you guys using an acronym CRNA. What is the difference between these two? Please give me more information before i go into this. Thank you.
Dr RW Ellett said
The issues can only be resolved with political involvement (there was a Senate committee looking into this). Provincial licensing, a College of Nurse Anesthetists, and appropriate malpractice insurance are basic necessities before the huge door can be opened. There certainly is a great need in Canada for Nurse Anesthetists but the issue of requiring Physician Anesthesiologists to assume legal responsibility for their actions is just silly and will be impossible to arrange in most hospital settings. Any compensation package must include liability insurance, and this will be a significant issue initially. Use Midwifery in BC as an example of how quickly a new paramedical program can be set up when there is Provincial Government resolve. I am not promoting Midwifery, just their rapid process of implementation. As a Surgeon I would support the Practice of Nurse Anesthesia in Canada and wish you all well.
Karla Grecia said
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for the offer of assistance. I would love to be able to talk to you about Buffalo opportunities. Now that the hectic holidays are over, I can start the process of obtaining my NY license. I’m at kdgrecia@gmail.com if you have a chance to email me. I will appreciate the information. Looking forward to talking to you.
Wendy Ouellette said
Hello again Karla
I will contact you via email (wouellette@cogeco.ca). We have plenty of opportunities for a very diverse practice within our group including neuro and cardiac surgery if you are so inclinded, but not mandatory. I’ll be in touch with you soon. Regards Wendy
shazia said
hi all,
My name is shazia from Pakistan. i m a RN and my speciality is anaesthesia, now i m working as a anaesthesia nurse in UAE.i want to know how can i apply for canada as a anaesthesia nurse. plz help me.