Safely anesthetizing patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) can be intimidating, particularly for novice anesthesia providers. Given the variety of complex issues anesthesia providers may encounter with patients, it would be impractical to expect expertise in every population. To combat the inevitable loss of knowledge, education experts recommend active learning techniques, including test-enhanced learning, active recall, and spaced repetition. To that end, this research team created an LVAD Assessment for Anesthesia, or LAmA tool, to be evaluated for content validity by eight experts. The LAmA tool and content validity assessment were distributed to two anesthesiologists and four nurse anesthetists in the cardiothoracic anesthesia department at a hospital in Northeast Ohio, as well as to two outside nursing research experts. Results were analyzed by the research team and the content validity index (CVI) was determined. A CVI of at least 0.875 was required for the tool to be valid, and final scores in the categories of relevance, clarity, and importance were all ≥ 0.9. The data from the validated tool were used to create a pocket reference on LVAD anesthetic management. Both educational assessments and pocket references have the potential to positively impact knowledge retention and patient outcomes, making them excellent clinical resources.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the self-perceived functional health literacy (FHL) of patients who underwent advanced endoscopic treatment, explore whether FHL could explain aspects of patients\' perioperative experiences, and determine whether patients read the provided patient information.
METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional explorative study.
METHODS: One hundred patients who underwent endoscopic bile duct intervention were enrolled and asked to answer the Swedish version of the FHL Scale and their perioperative experiences of the intervention. Along with procedural data, all data were analyzed for group comparisons; high or low FHL.
RESULTS: The study included a total of 100 patients, with half of them rating their FHL as problematic or inadequate (low FHL). Among those who perceived their FHL as inadequate, a majority had not read the provided information before the procedure. Patients with problematic or inadequate FHL experienced perioperative anxiety and pain more frequently than those with sufficient FHL (high FHL).
CONCLUSIONS: This study supports previous research on the association between low FHL and patients\' well-being. To better meet patients\' information needs, it is crucial for nurse anesthetists and other health care providers to have knowledge about FHL. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of using alternative and more effective means of delivering information to patients.

Olive Berger was a true nurse anesthesia pioneer for our profession. She dedicated her life to the advancement of nurse anesthesia through her leadership, advocacy, scholarly writing, clinical achievements and innovation. She blazed the trail by forming and establishing education requirements for nurse anesthesia programs, established a state nurse anesthesia organization, and led the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists as its 14th president in 1958. She was the Chief Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and Program Director at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and is best known for her collaboration with surgeons Dr. Alfred Blalock and Dr. Helen Taussig, providing anesthesia care during the groundbreaking repair of tetralogy of Fallot on infants.

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate wellness and student suicidality in nurse anesthesia programs. Graduate students such as student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) are at increased risk of suicide from environmental and educational stressors. Wellness interventions may help. An observational, anonymous online survey of all program directors (PDs) was conducted. Identical responses on a simultaneous pilot SRNA study were compared. Quantitative data were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank sum and Fisher\'s exact tests. Three PDs reported student suicides. Anxiety, depression, and emotional lability were warning signs. Student and PD responses to wellness program assessments were varied, with PD responses more positive and students more negative. PDs were as stressed as students and struggled to meet their own wellness needs. Most PDs reported no or insufficient training in suicide risk and prevention. Suggestions for improving wellness initiatives included to improve and standardize activities and make initiatives more accessible and seek innovative solutions to fit more content into an overcrowded curriculum. PDs and SRNAs need suicide prevention training and improved wellness efforts at local and national levels. Approaches are needed to counter stigma and reluctance to discuss mental health challenges. Suicide is multidimensional, but with proactive awareness, it may be preventable.

BACKGROUND: Clarifying the effectiveness of co-teaching in medicine and nursing (CMN) is important as it is crucial in clinical practice to improve the quality of patient care and prognosis. In this study, we aimed to determine the efficacy of CMN in nurse anesthetist training.
METHODS: The study comprised a 6-month training session and a before-and-after controlled study. In total, 59 nurses were recruited. The first 30 nurses were enrolled in the conventional single-teaching in nursing (SN) group and only took nursing-related courses. The next 29 students were enrolled in the CMN group and received both general medical and nursing-specific curricula. Before and after training, medical and nursing collaboration competency scores and knowledge scores were compared between the two groups. At the end of the study, qualitative comments on teaching satisfaction and clinical reasoning skills improvement were queried, and content analysis was performed.
RESULTS: Participants in the CMN group outperformed those in the SN group in tests of medical and nursing collaboration abilities as well as knowledge. The CMN group outperformed the SN group in terms of teaching satisfaction evaluation, particularly in terms of fostering learning in the anesthetist specialty, improving clinical practice, fostering motivation, and influencing how people think about challenges at work. Furthermore, participants in the CMN group felt that their clinical reasoning abilities had improved.
CONCLUSIONS: In comparison to the SN group, the CMN group had enhanced outcomes of patient care, medical and nursing collaboration, and clinical reasoning skills.

Research focusing on the scope of practice by nurse anesthetists (NAs) is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine NAs\' scope of practice in Norway, and to explore whether and how this has changed during the period from 1979 to 2018. The study had a repeated crosssectional design. All members of the Norwegian Association of Nurse Anesthetists at the four time-points (1979, 1989, 1999 and 2018) were invited to participate in a questionnaire study. Inclusion criteria were education and work as an NA and currently working in Norway. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings indicate that the scope of NAs\' practice in Norway has been increasingly restricted from 1979 to 2018 (N = 2171, P < .001). Additionally, the presence of an anesthesiologist when performing anesthesia had significantly increased during that time (39% in 1979 vs 90% in 2018). However, NAs\' independent practice significantly increased in some areas, such as handling of acute situations, (i.e., handling of laryngospasm/bronchospasm [41% in 1979 versus 54% in 2018]). International and national standards underline the independent role of NAs. The development shown in our results should be addressed to avoid further restrictions of NAs\' scope of practice.

All anesthesia providers, including nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists work in a stressful environment with diverse tasks. The profession is characterized by high workload, both dependent and independent job descriptions, and unpredictable conditions. This study was designed and conducted to explain the factors affecting the workplace health of Iranian anesthesia teams.
Twenty anesthesia team members including nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists from 7 different hospitals were enrolled in this phenomenological research. The data were collected in 2022. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and the transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
The most notable theme emerging from the data which was found to affect workplace health was consistency of anesthesia team. Other themes derived from the data included team tranquility and physical well-being.
The participants\' emphasis was more on behavioral and managerial factors affecting workplace health, and desirable interpersonal cooperation to create a suitable work environment for them was more prominent. These findings can raise the awareness of chief nurse anesthetists and planners to provide more effective teamwork, modify the job description structure, and reduce staff conflicts.

In 2020, the Mintrud of Russia approved a number of professional standards for specialists with secondary professional medical education. The implementation of professional standards is called to actualize outdated normative base concerning functions of medical workers, including assurance of separation of labor functions and actions of physicians and medical nurses, facilitation of development of job descriptions, and minimizing number of conflicts that occur during process of work activities at personnel functions crossing. The medical organization, focusing on requirements established by professional standards, can more competently develop personnel policy, make timely changes in staff list, establish progressive remuneration system. In this regard, it is useful to learn to what extent approved professional standards facilitate solution of practical problems of medical organizations.The article presents results of comparative analysis of three pairs of professional standards for paramedical personnel and specialists with higher education in comparable specialties. Certain contradictions and inaccuracies were esnablished too.
В 2020 г. Министерством труда и социальной защиты утвержден ряд профессиональных стандартов для специалистов со средним профессиональным медицинским образованием. Внедрение профессиональных стандартов призвано актуализировать устаревшую нормативную базу, касающуюся должностных обязанностей медицинских работников, в том числе обеспечить разграничение трудовых функций и действий врачей и медицинских сестер, облегчить разработку должностных инструкций, минимизировать количество конфликтов, возникающих в процессе трудовой деятельности при пересечении функций персонала. Ориентируясь на установленные профессиональными стандартами требования, медицинская организация может более грамотно формировать кадровую политику, вносить своевременные изменения в штатное расписание, устанавливать прогрессивную систему оплаты труда. В связи с этим представляет интерес, насколько утвержденные профессиональные стандарты помогают в решении практических проблем медицинских организаций.В статье приведены результаты сравнительного анализа трех пар профессиональных стандартов среднего медицинского персонала и специалистов с высшим медицинским образованием по сопоставимым специальностям, выявлены противоречия и неточности.

Introduction An \"unscheduled absence\" refers to an occurrence when an employee does not appear for work and the absence was not approved in advance by an authorized supervisor. Daily unscheduled absences need to be forecasted when doing staff scheduling to maintain an acceptable risk of being unable to run all anesthetizing locations and operating rooms planned. The number of extra personnel to be scheduled needs to be at least twice as large as the mean number absent. In an earlier historical cohort study, we found that our department\'s modeled risks of being unavailable unexpectedly differed among types of anesthesia practitioners (e.g., anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists) and among weekdays (i.e., Mondays, Fridays, and workdays adjacent to holidays versus other weekdays). In the current study, with two extra years of data, we examined the effect of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic on the frequency of unscheduled absences. Methods There were 50 four-week periods studied at a large teaching hospital in the United States, from August 30, 2018 to June 29, 2022. The sample size of 120,687 person-assignment days (i.e., a person assigned to work on a given day) included 322 anesthesia practitioners (86 anesthesiologists, 88 certified registered nurse anesthetists, 99 resident and fellow physicians, and 49 student nurse anesthetists). The community prevalence of COVID‑19 was estimated using the percentage positive among asymptomatic patients tested before surgery and other interventional procedures at the hospital. Results Each 1% increase in the prevalence of COVID-19 among asymptomatic patients was associated with a 1.131 increase in the odds of unscheduled absence (P < 0.0001, 99% confidence interval 1.086 to 1.178). Using an alternative model with prevalence categories, unscheduled absences were substantively more common when the COVID-19 prevalence exceeded 2.50%, P [Formula: see text] 0.0002. For example, there was a 1% unscheduled absence rate among anesthesiologists working Mondays and Fridays early in the pandemic when the prevalence of COVID-19 among asymptomatic patients was 1.3%. At a 1% unscheduled absence rate, 67 would be the minimum scheduled to maintain a <5.0% risk for being unable to run all 65 anesthetizing locations. In contrast, there was a 3% unscheduled absence rate among nurse anesthetists working Mondays and Fridays during the Omicron variant surge when the prevalence was 4.5%. At a 3% unscheduled absence rate, 70 would be the minimum scheduled to maintain the same risk of not being able to run 65 rooms. Conclusions Increases in the prevalence of COVID-19 asymptomatic tests were associated with more unscheduled absences, with no detected threshold. This quantitative understanding of the impact of communicable diseases on the workforce potentially has broad generalizability to other fields and infectious diseases.

UNASSIGNED: Substance misuse is an occupational health problem for anesthesia providers (APs). More than 10% of nurse anesthetists misuse and divert medications. No standard exists for addressing AP drug diversion. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the use of a knowledge and needs assessment to inform the development of a successful drug diversion prevention program for certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) and student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs).
UNASSIGNED: A 28-item questionnaire, using the health belief model (HBM) and the risk perception attitude (RPA) framework, was developed to assess knowledge, beliefs, and practices of substance misuse and diversion. RPA groups were determined by level of belief in self-risk and perceived efficacy of prevention strategies. The survey was emailed to 100 CRNAs and over 100 SRNAs. Survey results were organized using the RPA framework.
UNASSIGNED: One hundred twelve surveys were completed. The RPA avoidant category (high-risk belief and low perceived efficacy of preventive interventions) comprised 52.5% of CRNAs; SRNAs were divided primarily among the RPA responsive category with high perceived risk and high-efficacy beliefs (38.9%) and the indifferent category of low-risk beliefs and low perceived efficacy (31.9%).
UNASSIGNED: Anesthesia providers have varying beliefs regarding drug misuse and diversion risks and perceptions of their ability to be successful with preventive strategies. Failure to address nurse anesthesia needs-based diversion prevention may result in missed opportunities to educate this group. Implementation of RPA-tailored interventions by health care organizations may produce effective, long-term outcomes for drug diversion within the profession.