AANA Denounces AMA’s Action to Regulate Advanced Practice Registered Nurses through State Boards of Medicine

ROSEMONT, Ill.  – Angela Mund, DNP, CRNA, president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) issued the following statement in response to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) adopted policy recommending that Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) be regulated on the state level by both the board of medicine and the board of nursing.

“At a time when the healthcare industry is facing a critical workforce shortage and patients’ access to care is in jeopardy, the AMA has chosen to focus on ‘fixing’ a problem that does not exist.

“AMA Board of Trustees Report 12 adopts a new AMA policy, which proposes that CRNAs and other APRNs be jointly regulated by states’ Boards of Nursing and Boards of Medicine. This proposal creates unnecessary and duplicitous regulation that can restrict patients’ access to the holistic, high-quality care of advanced practice registered nurses.

“State nursing boards are uniquely qualified to oversee the practice of nursing, qualifications that  state boards of medicine lack. Nursing boards understand the nurse-patient relationship and honor the expert care provided by nurses. Involving boards of medicine in APRN regulation is inconsistent with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s model nursing act and rules and inconsistent with current state law for CRNAs in the vast majority of states.

“The AMA is again adopting policies   encouraging laws and regulations that impede competition and help their bottom line. They are attempting to misinform legislatures by advancing policies that will result in increased healthcare costs and reduced patient choice. Our nation’s healthcare system cannot afford to go backwards.

“As a CRNA and a member of America’s most trusted profession, I feel it’s incumbent upon us as healthcare professionals to be honest and transparent about healthcare policy. The AMA wants to maintain barriers to care as these policies put physicians, not consumers, in control of patients’ healthcare decisions.

“The AMA is simply stuck in the past. As frontline providers during the pandemic, CRNAs, as well as all APRNs, proved once and for all they have the training and clinical competence to provide safe, high-quality care without restrictive physician involvement. We urge our medical colleagues to join us in our movement to put patients first by supporting a modernized healthcare system that looks to the future, not the past.”