Through education and individual clinical experience, CRNAs attain the ability to initiate and manage all aspects of regional anesthesia techniques, including the management of associated complications. These techniques include, but are not limited to, the placement of spinal, epidural, peripheral nerve blocks, upper and lower extremity blocks, and the techniques associated with airway and pain management. The appropriateness of CRNAs administering regional anesthesia is recognized in the Council on Accreditation Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs guidelines and by reimbursement of CRNAs providing these services under policy of the Health Care Finance Administration. There are no federal or state prohibitions on the administration of regional anesthesia by nurse anesthetists. Studies show that CRNAs customarily perform these techniques with excellent outcomes.
Regional anesthesia is an accepted anesthesia technique.
Restraints on the performance of this technique merely because the administrator is a nurse anesthetist are artificial and may unnecessarily affect patient safety and outcomes.