An advanced practice Registered Nurse who spends at least one year working in an Intensive Care
Unit after graduation then does a
27-36 month residency learning every
type of anesthesia. Once graduated from the advanced anesthesia training, a CRNA
must pass a national accreditation exam . Nurse Anesthetists were the first medical specialty to practice anesthesia and studies have shown there to be no difference in patient outcomes between MD and CRNA anesthetics.