The certified registered nurse anesthetist

A qualitative inquiry was launched to explore occupational stress among Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). Four research questions were posed: 1) What are the roles and responsibilities of the CRNAs as they see them? 2) What are the CRNAs perceived stressors encountered on the job? 3) What are their coping strategies related to the perceived stressors? 4) What is the relationship between CRNA job stress and interpersonal work connections? Twenty CRNAs, with varying anesthetic backgrounds, and 15 of their co-workers from North Carolina and Tennessee participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews, clinical observations, and artifact data (i.e., photographs) were employed to answer the research questions. The perceived occupational-related stressors that were recognized by the CRNAs pertain specifically to patient care, anesthesia work in general, interpersonal job relationships, inadequate surgical preparation, the operating room environment, and physical stressors. Staying focused upon the task at hand (i.e., patient care), the use of humor, verbalization and internalization of concerns, along with adopting personal hobbies were identified by the anesthetists as coping mechanisms to combat work-related stress.