Posted by Dave J on January 2, 2008, 9:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Apples to apples"
For that matter, just exactly when does a CRNA practice without a physician/doctor being in the loop somewhere?
Surgery? Petty hard to do surgery without a surgeon, be it a MD, DO, podiatrist or dentist.
OB? There seems to be DO or MD physician around there somewhere also. Even when a nurse midwife is doing the delivery, she has a doc somewhere around in case they need to do a C-section.
Pain Management? If a CRNA is doing trigger point injections, epidural steroid injections, apply TENS units, a doctor somewhere had to have made a diagnosis and referred the patient to the CRNA for a particular treatment.
Just exactly when does a CRNA practice with some sort of doctor input? I know in 33 years I have never done it, because IMO to do so is outside the scope of practice. Nurse anesthetists may not diagnose or treat, they can only give anesthesia under very specific guidelines which require a doctor in the loop somewhere.