Nurse Anesthetists and Veterans

Editor Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2201 Sweeney Drive Clinton, Pennsylvania 15026 Dear Sir or Madam: This letter is in response to an article that appeared in your newspaper on July 13, 2016 by the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Ann Culp, entitled "CRNAs battle tested." The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced its intentions to provide full practice authority for its advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to improve the accessibility and quality of care provided our nation's heroic veterans.

In response to this announcement, a number of national organizations, including the American Nurses Association, the Federal Trade Commission, the American Hospital Association, the American Association for Retired Persons and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have all joined in supporting this expansion of practice authority for APRNs (Advocacy updates, 2016). I would like to add my support to this initiative.

Advanced practice registered nurses possess the training and experience that is needed to improve the quality and timeliness of health care services that are provided to our nations' veterans by practicing autonomously without physician oversight (Summers, 2016). Moreover, in 2014, three states, Connecticut, Minnesota and New York, granted this expanded practice authority to APRNs and another 19 states and the District of Columbia currently authorize full practice authority following a transition period (Summers, 2016). Taken together, it is clear that there is growing recognition that APRNs.