International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists: Update January 2009

Update January 2009

International Survey
Mr. Cameron Oliver, a graduate student in Nurse Anesthesia, has developed a survey to compile the information requested regarding the practice of anesthesia. As part of Mr. Oliver’s graduate research project, he will statistically analyze the information and present the information at various anesthesia meetings, as well as post the findings on the IFNA webpage.

The survey is directed towards nurses and non-physicians that provide anesthesia. If the person filling out the survey practices as part of an Anesthesia Care Team (physician and nurse team), the term ‘anesthesia provider’ as it pertains to the survey means the person filling out the survey (a nurse or non-physician).

Please share this email with as many anesthesia colleagues that wish to contribute. The information collected will be kept in strict confidence. Questions regarding the survey can be sent to oliver.cameron@mayo.edu . Survey participants who fill out the optional personal information (question #10) may be contacted to clarify survey answers.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3ENlPoPwfyAiWcJbfhNPYw_3d_3d

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sincerely yours,

Sandra Ouellete, CRNA, M.Ed, FAAN
President, IFNA
souellette@triad.rr.com

Pascal Rod, RNA
Executive Director, IFNA
133 Avenue Irène,
78670 Villennes sur seine France
ifna.rod@wanadoo.fr

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WHO Surgical Safety Checklist:

The IFNA participates to the WHO program " Safe Surgery Saves Life" and has endorsed the Surgical Safety Checklist. This project was launched last June and is already reporting on improvment. Here is the message sent by the WHO team:

Dear Colleague,

The Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative is proud to announce that the results of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist Pilot Study were published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist reduced the rate of deaths and complications by more than one third in our eight pilot hospitals (located in Toronto, Canada; New Delhi, India; Amman, Jordan; Auckland, New Zealand; Manila, Philippines; Ifakara, Tanzania; London, UK; Seattle, USA). The rate of major inpatient complications dropped from 11% to 7% and inpatient death rate following major operations fell from 1.5% to 0.8% after implementation of the checklist. The effect was of similar magnitude in both high and low/middle income country sites.

The full text of the paper is available free of charge as an Online First publication at www.nejm.org. It will appear in print in the 29 January 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

To learn more about the Safe Surgery Saves Lives Project please visit www.who.int/safesurgery or www.safesurg.org.

Sincerely,

Atul Gawande and the Safe Surgery Saves Lives team

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The IFNA is developping an international Accreditation Process for nurse anesthesia programs .

IMPORTANT! Invitations to comment on the IFNA’s proposed approval process for anesthesia education programs are being accepted until November 1, 2008.

Some volunteer programs have been already involved in a Pilot Accreditation Program and hold the status of "IFNA Recognition" Programs Recognized