Faith-Based Nursing Philosophy: Becoming a CRNA
This paper presents a personal philosophy of nursing that integrates Christian faith with the professional goal of becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA). The author argues that nursing, at its core, is a faith-based vocation requiring care of the whole person — body, mind, and soul. Drawing on the historical connection between spirituality and anesthesia nursing, including the first recorded nurse anesthetist, Sister Mary Bernard, the paper explores how spiritual sensitivity and technical competence together define excellence in nurse anesthesia practice. The paper also addresses future trends, including an aging population and cost-cutting pressures that will expand the CRNA role.
- Introduction: Faith as the Foundation of Nursing: Christian faith as core nursing vocation
- Holistic Care and the Nurse Anesthetist's Role: Spiritual and psychological comfort before surgery
- Spirituality and the History of Nurse Anesthesia: Sister Mary Bernard and faith-nursing history
- Professional Goals and the CRNA Path: Becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist
- Future Outlook for Faith-Based Nursing Practice: Aging population and expanding CRNA demand
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What makes this paper effective
- The author seamlessly weaves personal faith with professional aspiration, giving the reflection both emotional authenticity and academic grounding.
- The historical reference to Sister Mary Bernard as the first recorded nurse anesthetist strengthens the argument that spirituality and anesthesia nursing have always been linked, moving beyond mere assertion.
- The paper maintains a respectful, non-imposing tone regarding religion, acknowledging patient autonomy while articulating a faith-driven personal vocation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates the use of historical evidence to support a values-based argument. Rather than relying solely on personal belief, the author anchors the claim about spirituality's role in nurse anesthesia in documented professional history, lending credibility to what could otherwise read as purely subjective reflection.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing the author's Christian worldview and its relationship to nursing, then narrows to the specific demands of nurse anesthesia practice. It pivots to historical evidence supporting the faith-nursing connection, then broadens again to professional goals and future healthcare trends. This funnel-and-expand structure effectively moves from the personal to the professional to the systemic.
Introduction: Faith as the Foundation of Nursing
As a Christian, I see my faith as critically integrated with my goal of becoming a nurse anesthesiologist. While I do not believe that a nurse should ever impose his or her faith upon patients, I have always seen my deeply felt vocation of caring for the sick and wounded as one of the critical pillars of my personal creed and religious orientation. I also believe that facilitating the healing process of the currently well and able-bodied is part of that same faith-based vocation. Christianity in its purest form promotes respect for the human body and soul, and a Christian nurse must treat the whole person — body, mind, and soul — in every patient encounter.
Holistic Care and the Nurse Anesthetist's Role
More than dispensing technical nursing care, I believe that a nurse anesthetist must also provide spiritual and psychological comfort and counseling to patients about to undergo the surgical process. Surgery can be traumatizing, even when it is necessary and sought by the patient. A nurse must be a Samaritan in the truest sense of the word — dispensing care equally and impartially to all who are in need of, and in desire of, healing from the healthcare system and community.
Specifically, a nurse anesthetist provides a kind of bridge between consciousness and unconsciousness. In many ways, a nurse working in the field of anesthesia is always engaged in helping to create a sense of peace in the patient before the patient enters another, temporary state of mind and being, before being made whole again. Being sensitive to the patient's need for calm or conversation is almost as critical for the nurse anesthetist as being technically competent. The certified registered nurse anesthetist must balance both dimensions with equal skill.
Spirituality and the History of Nurse Anesthesia
Perhaps this is why, when looking into the history of the profession I wished to embark upon, I was not surprised to find that the first officially recorded, trained nurse anesthetist was Sister Mary Bernard, a Catholic nun who practiced in 1878 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. In American history, many of the first nurse anesthetists were nuns (Evans, 2004).
This connection between spirituality and the profession demonstrates that a patient undergoing anesthesia must be physically safe — and feel safe in body and soul — before undergoing the physical and psychological impact of an operation. And even if the anesthesia is only a locally or partially administered drug, the nurse must be equally sensitive to the patient's fears, needs, and reactions. Flexibility of response is key to the profession — and indeed, flexibility in terms of one's projected working environment and patient population. One of the exciting aspects of the profession is that a nurse anesthetist can work for a hospital, an outpatient surgery center, a dental or specialist's facility, a group practice, or even independently. The choices seem limitless.
Works Cited
Evans, Thomas. "What is a Nurse Anesthesiologist?" Anesthesia Nursing and Medicine website, 2004. Retrieved 24 Mar. 2005 from
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