HOUSE MEMORIAL 26

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

Debra M. Sariñana and Jason C. Harper

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE FEDERAL VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION TO RECOGNIZE FULL-PRACTICE AUTHORITY FOR CERTIFIED REGISTERED NURSE ANESTHETISTS TO PRACTICE INDEPENDENTLY IN ITS FACILITIES ANESTHESIA, DELIVERY FOR SURGERY, LABOR AND DELIVERY, TRAUMA STABILIZATION AND CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT.

     WHEREAS, certified registered nurse anesthetists are highly educated advanced practice registered nurses who hold a masters or doctoral degree from an accredited nurse anesthesia educational program and must attain a minimum of seven or eight years of education, training and experience before becoming certified registered nurse anesthetists; and

     WHEREAS, certified registered nurse anesthetists deliver anesthesia to patients in exactly the same ways, for the same types of complex procedures and for the same severity of conditions, just as safely as physician anesthesiologists; and

     WHEREAS, certified registered nurse anesthetists work in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered, including battlefields, forward surgical teams, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, dental offices, pain clinics and physician offices; and

     WHEREAS, certified registered nurse anesthetists provide such services as pre-anesthesia evaluation, administering anesthetics, monitoring and interpreting patients' vital signs and managing patients' care through surgery and in the recovery room; and

     WHEREAS, providing acute and chronic pain management services is within the professional scope of certified registered nurse anesthetists; and

     WHEREAS, according to the United States census bureau, one hundred seventy-two thousand seven hundred seventeen New Mexicans are veterans; and

     WHEREAS, there are only sixteen federal veterans health administration facilities throughout the state, with six centers in metropolitan areas; and

     WHEREAS, there are more than eighty-six thousand veterans living in rural areas who have limited access to necessary medical services; and

     WHEREAS, the exclusion of certified registered nurse anesthetists from full-practice authority could mean that many veterans will continue to endure dangerously long wait times for needed health care requiring anesthesia services; and

     WHEREAS, granting full-practice authority to certified registered nurse anesthetists in the veterans health administration would allow certified registered nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists to work together as equal partners; and

     WHEREAS, allowing existing certified registered nurse anesthetists in the veterans health administration full-practice authority would increase patient access to care without additional funding and would also increase efficiency; and

     WHEREAS, granting full-practice authority to all advanced practice nurses would standardize care and ensure long-term sustainability in the veterans health administration; and

     WHEREAS, the American association of nurse anesthetists has expressed strong concerns about federal legislation that omits certified registered nurse anesthetists and recognizes only three of the four advanced practice registered nurse specialities for full-practice authority in the veterans health administration; and

     WHEREAS, granting full-practice authority to certified registered nurse anesthetists would ensure that the nation's veterans would have access to essential surgical, emergency, obstetric and pain management health care services without needless delays or having to travel long distances for care;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the veterans health administration be requested to recognize full-practice authority for certified registered nurse anesthetists to practice independently in its facilities anesthesia, delivery for surgery, labor and delivery, trauma stabilization and chronic pain management; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the under secretary for health of the veterans health administration, the medical director of the New Mexico veterans affairs health care system, New Mexico's secretary of veterans' services and the American association of nurse anesthetists.

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