Our Nation’s Veterans Deserve Better and Greater Access to Healthcare in Virginia
Our Nation’s Veterans Deserve Better and Greater Access to Healthcare in Virginia
By Bridget Wolfe, CRNA
The more than 600,000 veterans living here in Virginia deserve the best, most timely healthcare through the Veterans Administration (VA)—without long waits and red tape.
As a board member of the Virginia Association of Nurse Anesthetists, I urge the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to create national standards of practice that will allow Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), also known as nurse anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists, to practice at the full extent of their training, education, and licensure. Removing barriers so that advanced practice providers, including CRNAs, can practice to the top of the education and licensure is the right policy and honors those who have served our country.
This move will not only expand access to care for veterans but decrease wait times so that care can be delivered when they need it most, while decreasing the cost of that care for the VA. Plus, it would allow the VA needed flexibility with rural facilities and providers working across state lines.
While all other types of Advanced Practice Nurses (APN) can practice to the full extent of their training, education, and licensure, CRNAs cannot. In fact, CRNAs are the only APNs without full practice authority in the VA healthcare system.
CRNAs have full practice authority in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. They are the predominant anesthesia provider on forward surgical teams and in combat support hospitals, where 90 percent of forward surgical teams are staffed by CRNAs. Many CRNAs in Virginia, like me, are veterans themselves.
It is time to disassemble the healthcare monopoly within the VA and ensure our veterans have the care they need and deserve for their sacrifice and service.
Visit AnesthesiaFacts.com to ask Virginia Congressional leaders to contact U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough to support the VA’s effort to establish National Standards of Practice for Healthcare Professionals and to support allowing CRNAs to practice to the full extent of their education and training.
Our veterans deserve the best care possible, and allowing CRNAs the ability to practice to the full extent of their education and training will deliver the safe, high-quality care they need.
Bridget Wolfe, CRNA, is a CRNA from Warrenton, VA who practices with MedStream Anesthesia.
