University Of Tulsa Addressing Anesthesia Provider Shortage With New Program

Every day across the country, tens of thousands of people go under anesthesia for all types of procedures. But in some states, including Oklahoma, medical professionals are warning about a growing need for healthcare providers to administer that anesthesia.

In Oklahoma alone, 30 percent of that workforce is retiring in the next nine years.

Intensive care nurse Olivia McGuire is just months away from a major career change.

She is one of 14 students in the final year of nurse anesthesia school at the University of Tulsa. It is a new, first-of-its-kind program in Oklahoma focused on training the next generation of anesthesia providers.

"The only other option prior to this program was moving out of state to go to anesthesia school,” McGuire said.

Healthcare leaders in Oklahoma are starting to sound the alarm about the need for programs like this. When a patient has surgery, the healthcare provider putting the patient to sleep is trained in one of two ways.

Anesthesiologists are medical doctors who complete 12 or more years of school and training and are more common in cities and bigger hospitals.

Then, there are CRNAs, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, a doctorate level nurse, with ICU experience and three years of CRNA school.

Oklahoma has 630 CRNAs, but in the next decade, almost 200 are expected to retire all while the demand for surgical services increases.

That's where TU stepped in.

"It's not easy to start a new program in the state, but this program has taken off; it has been wildly successful,” David White said.

White is a CRNA and Assistant Program Director for TU's School of Nurse Anesthesia, which started in 2020, in part to keep up with the market.

COOPER: "Is there a concern that they're not able to meet those demands?"

WHITE: "Yeah, that's a reality, and we're trying to prevent that, especially in the state of Oklahoma, by just growing this program."

Before TU's program, all prospective CRNAs had to leave Oklahoma for school, sometimes taking jobs outside of the state as well.

Rural hospitals have been hit the hardest. Of the 77 Oklahoma counties, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia provider in 26 of them, while 32 have no providers at all.

Rural facilities often have to hire contractors.

"The problem normally is related to the substantial cost that comes along with contracting those services out,” Brian Whitfield said.

Whitfield is the president and CEO of McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel.

COOPER: "What did you have to do in order to find two full-time CRNAs at your hospital?

WHITFIELD: "I lost my right arm and leg -- no, I'm just kidding,” he said. "We began immediately looking to our neighbors to the south and looking at opportunities there."

Whitfield convinced two CRNAs in the Dallas area to move to Idabel and join his staff.

Back at TU, the hope is that hospitals won't have to do that as much in the future.

Third-year student and Tulsa native Beau Rotramel already has a job lined up.

“I want to stay in-state; I want to stay in my city that I grew up in,” Rotramel said.

Meanwhile, McGuire hopes to eventually work in her hometown of Drumright.

"I am born and raised in rural Oklahoma, and I know what it’s like to have to drive thirty minutes, an hour to have access to quality medical care,” McGuire said.

With more applicants coming in every year, the goal is to make anesthesia care easy and accessible in both cities and small towns.

State lawmakers have also worked to address some of these shortages. In 2020, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 801, which removed oversight requirements for CRNAs to work independently in Oklahoma. Earlier this year, Senate Bill 1126 was signed into law to help start a CRNA program at the University of Oklahoma.