The history of the nurse anesthesia profession is a bit murky as records weren’t kept well through the years as medicine and healthcare progressed, but there are opinions on who the first anesthetist was. Today we’ll examine the most likely candidates with our historians Nancy Bruton-Maree, CRNA, and Sandy Ouellette, CRNA, and try to determine who can claim the title of the real first anesthetist.
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What we discuss in this episode:
3:00 – Background on this topic
6:36 – History books on anesthesia
10:21 – Historical information
15:08 – Humphry Davy
16:16 – Crawford Long
17:51 – Horace Wells
19:27 – William Morton
22:35 – James Simpson
23:06 – John Snow
28:39 – The real first anesthetist according to AANA
33:56 – Who was in the earliest American hospitals?
38:08 – Disputes
40:44 – The role nuns played
42:58 – The evolution of names for anesthetists
46:32 – Sandy’s opinion on first anesthetists
48:21 – Final thoughts
Resources mentioned on the show:
The Wondrous Story of Anesthesia
The Global Voice for Nurse Anesthesia - IFNA (1989-2021)
