New brawl between medical and nursing professionals, this time on account of the performance of anesthesia. The Satse union has sent a letter to the Ministry of Health asking it to carry out the necessary actions and changes at the training and regulatory level so that nurses “can actively carry out the anesthesia process before, during and after a surgical procedure”. The response from the doctors has not been long in coming: anesthesiology is a medical specialty that requires a degree and, later, four more years of study. And no, you don’t learn it in a 20-hour course.
And it is that the president of Satse, Manuel Cascos, looks at what is happening in the United Kingdom, where nursing professionals who wish to carry out this health work must take a 20-credit postgraduate course that combines a theoretical part with another practice in hospitals, under the supervision of another professional who tutors colleagues in training, explain from the union organization.
“This same tutor also assesses that the necessary skills in anesthesiology are adequately achieved and, once the course has been completed, the nurse is supervised and supported in her work activity for another six months until it is estimated that she can work autonomously,” says Cascos.
But, why does nursing want to carry out this activity? The Nursing Union considers that the fact that nurses can actively carry out the anesthesia process would make it possible to open a new space for collaboration between Medicine and Nursing professionals in hospital centers which could also minimize the deficit of anesthetists that our healthcare system has suffered for a long time.
But for the General Council of Official Colleges of Physicians (CGCOM) and the Spanish Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Pain Therapy (SEDAR) this is not a justification. And they appeal to the need to have specialized knowledge. “It is this specialization that provides clinical safety for patients and the excellence of the medical act. In this sense, it is emphasized that mortality and morbidity directly related to anesthesia has been radically reduced in the last 40 years product of those skills and knowledge,” they point out.
For its part, the General Nursing Council (CGE) clarifies that nurses do not want to “replace the anesthetist”, although the institution chaired by Florentino Pérez Raya stresses that in many hospitals there are already nurses who complement the work of the anesthetist in complex surgical interventions or endoscopies. “A specific accreditation diploma for these nurses could be proposed,” they point out from this entity.
