Sorry Stanley, but NURSE anesthetists were not the first anesthesia providers. If you had not slept through HISTORY OF ANESTHESIA you would have learned that the first anesthesia providers were:
Gardner Quincy Colton, medical student showed people just what nitrous oxide could do.
Horace Wells, a dentist saw one of those demonstrations and realized that might help in dentistry. He went on to remove a tooth under nitrous at Mass Gen in 1845...
Crawford Long, MD...in the meantime used ether to remove a tumor in 1842.
It all sort of came together at Mass Gen in 1849 and it became the Mecca of anesthesiology. (Still no nurses, just dentists and doctors.)
John Snow, MD over in England gained fame in the meantime with chloroform. 1947. (No nurses there either, just doctors.)
Mary Bernard, a Catholic Sister became the first non-dentist, non-physician provider of anesthesia. She was a nurse using the loosest of definitions. That was 1977..
However, the AANA's own website says nurse anesthesia was "established in the late 1800s."
Guess who taught all those nurses how to do anesthesia? Doctors and dentists.
(I think I told you all this before but you must have forgotten. Better check your gas evacuator for leaks.)
Nurses were used in the USA because the nation was big and spread out and there were not enough doctors. In other words Stanley, we got our start because of expediency. Fortunately it turned out well.....