ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study was done to identify job tasks and task elements of Korean nurse anesthetists according to type of medical institution. METHODS: A job task scale which consisted of 9 job tasks and 40 task elements was developed. Data were collected from December, 2009 to February, 2010 from 182 nurse anesthetists who were working in medical institutions (response rate: 75.8%). RESULTS: Forty-eight percent of nurse anesthetists were independent from anesthesiologists in anesthetic practice. Preanesthetic nursing assessment was much more frequent in small hospitals than in general hospitals (p<.05), and anesthetic nursing intervention, administering the anesthetics, monitoring the patient's status during anesthesia, and provision of safety and compliance with anesthetic ethics were much more frequent in general hospitals than medical centers (p<.001). There were no differences among the medical institutions for job tasks in post-anesthetic nursing interventions (p=.229), administering anesthetics (p=.354) and monitoring patients' status during anesthesia (p=.099), providing safe anesthetic environment (p=.896), and management of ancillary personnel/equipment (p=.617). CONCLUSION: Results indicate that nurse anesthetists contribute significantly to anesthetic practice in small hospitals and general hospitals. Therefore, it recommended that nursing leaders make efforts to enact legal nurse anesthetist-related policies for safe and high quality anesthetic nursing care.