Anesthesiologists have the option of becoming board certified. However, physician board certification is becoming more compulsory by many medical centers in order to gain or maintain staff privileges. Very few nonmedical layman, students, or professionals know of it's existence. Usually, only medical professionals actively involved in surgical services are keenly aware of nurse anesthesia activities. Finally, nurse anesthetists train and practice in 107 different countries, as delegates from other counties participate in the yearly World Congress of the International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists.
Recent studies find anesthesia care worldwide is operationally a nursing function.
Nursing sisters in the Operating Theatre, a postcard from the St. Gerardus Hospital in Bussum, Netherlands, and is postmarked 1940. Courtesy of the Zwerdling Nursing Archives . A sister is near one of the anesthesia set-ups, but due to the location and year, it is unclear if she administered anesthesia. In American history, many of the first nurse anethetists were nuns. The first Nurse Anesthetist is recognized as Sister Mary Bernard, a Catholic nun who practiced in 1877 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania.