Ep 167: In Search of the First Anesthetists

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.   Read more: http://beyondthemaskpodcast.com    Get the CE certificate here: https://beyondthemaskpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Beyond-the-Mask-CE-Cert-FILLABLE.pdf   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 Etherist Podcast The Global Voice for Nurse Anesthesia - IFNA (1989-2021)