Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) provide anesthesia independently, without supervision, across Kansas in a safe and cost-effective manner. Currently, approximately 1,000 CRNAs in Kansas deliver obstetrical, surgical, pain management, and trauma stabilization services in both large and small hospitals, and they are the primary anesthesia providers in most ambulatory surgical centers. Critically important to rural Kansas, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in 80% of rural hospitals (see map below).

Nationwide, more than 68,000 CRNAs practice across the United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico. By comparison, there are roughly 60,000 anesthesiologists. CRNAs practice to their full scope in every branch of the Armed Forces and are overwhelmingly the predominant providers of life-saving damage control resuscitation and trauma anesthesia in forward surgical units during wartime.

CRNAs are not just essential—they are the reason many Kansas hospitals can continue providing surgical, obstetrical, and emergency care. Supporting CRNAs means supporting access to healthcare for every Kansan.