New Jersey Association of Nurse Anesthetists:

The Nurse anesthetists have been provided that anesthesia care in the United States for 150 years. According to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, it is the oldest nurse specialty group in the United States. Additionally, in tribute to the profession’s roots, today’s nurse anesthetists persist the primary anesthesia providers to U.S. service men and women at home and overseas. Among the first American nurses to provide anesthesia was Catherine S. Lawrence. Along with other nurses, Lawrence directed anesthesia during the American Civil War.The first "official" nurse anesthetist is accepted as Sister Mary Bernard, a Catholic nun who experienced in 1877 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. There is sign that up to 50 or more other Catholic sisters were called to practice anesthesia in various mid-west Catholic and Protestant hospitals during the last two decades of the 19th century. The first school of nurse anesthesia was made in 1909 at St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, Oregon. Established by Agnes McGee, the course was seven months long, and involved courses on anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, and administration of common anesthetic agents. Within the next period, approximately 19 schools opened. All consisted of post-graduate anesthesia training for nurses and were about six months in span. These included programs at Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Barnes Hospital, New York Post-Graduate Clinic, Handouts Hospital in New Orleans, Grace Hospital in Detroit, among others. Early anesthesia training programs providing education for all levels of health providers. For example, in 1915, chief nurse anesthetist Agatha Hodgins recognized the Lakeside Hospital School of Anesthesia in Cleveland, Ohio. This program was not built up to nurses, physicians, and dentists. The training was six months and the tuition was $50. A diploma was awarded on completion. In its first year, it progressed six physicians, two dentists, and 11 nurses. Later, in 1918, it established a system of clinical associations with other Cleveland hospitals. Some nurse anesthetists were appointed to medical school geniuses to train the medical students in anesthesia. For example, Agnes McGee also taught third year medical school students at the Oregon Health Science Center. Moreover, nurse anesthetist Alice Hunt was appointed instructor in anesthesia with university abundant at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1922. She held this position for 26 years. Additionally, she authored the 1949 book Anesthesia, Principles and Exercise. This is most likely the first nurse anesthesia textbook. Early nurse anesthetists were complicated in publications. For example, in 1906, nurse anesthetist Alice Magaw published a statement on the use of ether anesthesia by drop method 14,000 times without a fatality. Establishment in 1899, Magaw authored more than a few publications with some published and many ignored because of her importance as a non-physician. Ms. Magaw existed the anesthetist at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester for the well-known brothers, Dr. Charles Horace Mayo and Dr. William James Mayo. This converted the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Ms. Magaw set up a platform for surgery and anesthesia that has appealed many students and visitors.