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.