TCU's nurse anesthesia students lobby national lawmakers on behalf of the profession

Fort Worth, TX

5/27/2009

By: Stephanie Patrick

As a student representative for Oklahoma Association of Nurse Anesthetists, senior David White understands the importance of getting politically involved in state and local issues. Many times he’s voiced support for issues affecting nurse anesthetists in Oklahoma and has even gone to the state capitol in Oklahoma City.

But, recently, he and other TCU nurse anesthesia students received an opportunity to lobby on a national scale, speaking to Congressional representatives in Texas and Oklahoma on behalf of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

The students, accompanied by Terri Jones, clinical assistant professor in TCU’s School of Nurse Anesthesia, spoke to lawmakers such as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.), a TCU alumnus, about issues ranging from providing more educational funding for nurses in an effort to encourage more people to become certified registered nurse anesthetists to showing support for a Medicare anesthesia payment bill that asks for equitable reimbursement for nurse anesthesia students in comparison to what’s received by physician residents.

“A lot of Congress members who are not medically oriented think we are doctors; we aren’t,” White said. “But, with the future health care reforms that President Obama has suggested and the emphasis now on cutting health care costs, we provide quality anesthesia care equal to that of a doctor and we do it at about half the cost.

“Our main goal in meeting with them was to let the lawmakers know they need to remember and understand the work of CRNAs.”

CRNAs administer about 30 million anesthetics to patients each year, according to AANA. Nurse anesthetists are the primary anesthesia providers in rural areas of the United States, and are the sole providers in some hospitals. There are nearly 40,000 nurse anesthetists in the U.S.

White and fellow TCU senior Alyssa Pugh were sponsored attendees of AANA’s Mid-year Assembly in Arlington, Va., after their winning essays about the importance of involvement were chosen by Jones. Other TCU students attending the assembly and sponsored by the state association were Jessica Appel, Robin Woodard and Laraine Klunder. While there, students were educated about many of the political issues facing CRNAs and others in the health care industry.

“I think the students were very enlightened that there is so much that a professional needs to be aware of, not just his or her own niche of working in the operating room,” said Jones, who also attended AANA’s assembly for the first time. “They learned that someone will actually listen to them and that we can affect change in our country.”

It was an educational experience for White, who plans to run for the board of his state association soon and has secured a job at Mays County Medical Center in Pryor, Okla., following his graduation in December.

“Congress seems so intimidating on TV’s C-SPAN and CNN, but all the people who are working for us in Congress are just normal people,” he said. “Some of them grew up in small towns around where I live and, even though they have high-ranking positions, they are just people who want to improve things and hear from their constituents.”