Watchful Care: A History of America's Nurse Anesthetists (Audiobook)

How do you tell the story of a profession that spent over a century working in the shadows of the operating room? In this introduction, Marianne Bankert sets out to recover the overlooked history of America's nurse anesthetists. This kicks off Volume 1 of Watchful Care.

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Before there was a profession, there was Alice Magaw. A nurse at the Mayo brothers' side who quietly became one of the most trusted anesthetists in the country, without a single fatality across thousands of surgeries. This opening chapter traces the scientific breakthroughs of the late 1800s that made her work possible, the first women who stepped into the operating room to do it, and how the earliest forms of anesthesia evolved into the practice we'd recognize today.

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Pick up the paperback versions of ⁠Watchful Care I⁠ and ⁠Watchful Care II⁠ on Amazon.

When surgeon George Crile needed someone to master a new, riskier form of anesthesia, he didn't turn to a physician — he chose a nurse, Agatha Hodgins. Together they took their techniques to the front lines of the First World War, treating soldiers in shock, proving nurse anesthesia could hold up under the worst conditions medicine had ever faced. But back home, that same skill was too often dismissed as simply "women's work." This chapter follows Hodgins' rise, her partnership with Crile, and the fight to be taken seriously in a profession that owed her so much.

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Learn more about becoming a member of the ⁠⁠AANA⁠⁠.

Pick up the paperback versions of ⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠ on Amazon.

As nurse anesthesia proved itself in hospitals across the country, it also drew a target on its back. This chapter turns to the economics of a profession under threat and to the man who would spend years trying to dismantle it, Dr. Francis McMechan. From his campaign to shut down the Lakeside School to the courtroom battle of Frank v. South, where a Kentucky court was asked to decide whether a nurse could legally save a life with an anesthetic, this is the story of a fight for the right to practice at all.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

By 1931, nurse anesthetists across the country had proven themselves in operating rooms, on battlefields, and in courtrooms. What they lacked was a unified voice. This chapter introduces Adeline Curtis, whose fight for the right to practice helped fuel the drive toward organization, and follows the founding of the National Association of Nurse Anesthetists: the hard-won bylaws, the fragile early partnerships, and unexpected allies that would help shape the profession for decades to come. It closes with a look back at that very first national meeting.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

Nowhere did the tension between medicine and nursing come to a sharper head than in a Los Angeles courtroom, where nurse anesthetist Dagmar Nelson found herself on trial for practicing medicine without a license — a case that would climb all the way to the California Supreme Court. As that legal battle unfolded, Agatha Hodgins and Helen Lamb were fighting a quieter war of their own: building the rigorous educational standards that would prove nurse anesthesia was no less a discipline than any other. Then the world went to war again. This chapter follows nurse anesthetists into World War II , into hastily built training programs, onto ships and into field hospitals, and into the kind of battlefield stories that would change how the country understood what these providers were capable of.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

The war was over, but the fight for legitimacy wasn't. This chapter picks up in 1947 , as Florence McQuillen steps into the story that would define the next quarter-century of the profession. Old resistance resurfaces in a new form, when the American Society of Anesthesiologists quietly moved to make it unethical for physicians to even train nurse anesthetists. One doctor's refusal to comply would help keep the door open. From there: the long-sought achievement of formal AANA accreditation, hard lessons from Korea, a renewed push to affirm the "nurse" at the heart of "nurse anesthetist," and the profession's service through Vietnam — carrying through years of uneasy dialogue between the AANA and the ASA, and to the close of the McQuillen era itself.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

Goldie Branman's presidential address calls on members to get more involved as the organization enters a new, more political era. This chapter follows that shift: the fight over HEW accreditation criteria, an attempt at a liaison committee between the AANA and ASA, and the Jefferson Parish v. Hyde case, which tested hospitals' ability to exclude CRNAs through exclusive contracts. Ira Gunn plays a central role throughout, particularly in the long road toward direct Medicare reimbursement and the growing influence of insurance on the profession.

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Learn more about becoming a member of the⁠⁠⁠AANA⁠⁠⁠.

Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

A reference section rounding out the audiobook: reflections from every AANA president from the organization's 1931 founding through 1989, tributes to recipients of the Award of Appreciation and Honorary Membership, and a record of the founding order of the state associations.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

Before continuing the story, this introduction steps back to set the stage: a sweep through the history of pain management before 1846, the advent of modern surgical anesthesia, and the birth of the nurse anesthetist profession — through the early opposition it faced and the founding of the AANA, through both World Wars and Vietnam, and to Goldie Brangman's landmark tenure as the AANA's first African American president. From there, it turns to the forces that would define the profession's modern era: the rise of Medicare, the beginnings of the broader American healthcare crisis, the hard-won achievement of direct reimbursement, and the education crisis that emerged in the 1980s. It's the bridge between where the story has been and where Volume 2 is headed.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

As nurse anesthesia stepped onto the world stage with the founding of IFNA, the profession also found itself tested on new fronts at home: the Gulf War, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and a fight for fair reimbursement that would only grow more complicated. This chapter follows nurse anesthetists through a decade of contradictions — the promise of real autonomy running headlong into hospitals moving to exclude nurse anesthetists altogether, as in MANA v. Allina Health System, and the late-1990s HCFA supervision ruling that would test how far that autonomy could actually go. Along the way: the push for broader healthcare reform, the state of education in the 1990s, and the dedication of the Vietnam Women's Memorial, honoring a service still being reckoned with decades later.

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Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

The decade opens with a question of autonomy and legitimacy: when a 2001 federal rule let individual states opt out of mandatory physician supervision, it kicked off a state-by-state fight that would reshape the profession for years to come. This chapter follows that first wave of opt-outs and the second that followed, set against the backdrop of a nation forever changed by September 11th and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — years that brought their own strain, from malpractice insurance crises to the founding of a strategic reserve fund built to weather them. It also covers Jan Stewart and the AANA wellness initiative, the evolving state of nurse anesthesia education, growing attention to diversity within the profession, and a milestone 75th anniversary celebration.

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Learn more about becoming a member of the⁠⁠⁠AANA⁠⁠⁠.

Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

This chapter marks the passing of two towering figures in the profession's history, Ira Gunn and John Garde, and covers the AANA Journal earning a notable honor and the rise of pain management as a subspecialty. It follows the ongoing opt-out campaign, the impact of the Affordable Care Act, and the fight for full practice authority at the Veterans Health Administration. The chapter also covers the profession's experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing focus on equity within nurse anesthesia, and the historic 2021 rebrand to the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology.

Expand your education and knowledge about Nurse Anesthesia by interacting with the⁠⁠⁠Beyond The Mask Podcast⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about becoming a member of the⁠⁠⁠AANA⁠⁠⁠.

Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.

Volume 2 closes as Volume 1 did, with reflections in their own words, this time from the presidents who led the AANA from 1989 through 2021.

Expand your education and knowledge about Nurse Anesthesia by interacting with the⁠⁠⁠Beyond The Mask Podcast⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about becoming a member of the⁠⁠⁠AANA⁠⁠⁠.

Pick up the paperback versions of⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care I⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠Watchful Care II⁠⁠⁠ on Amazon.