| The AANA began on June 17, 1931, when 40 nurse anesthetists from 12 states gathered in a classroom at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland. The meeting unfolded on a busy day for what was then Western Reserve University, with graduation exercises underway at Severance Hall and the dedication of University Hospitals taking place the same day. As Virginia S. Thatcher later wrote in History of Anesthesia with Emphasis on the Nurse Specialist, the nurse anesthetist meeting “went by unnoticed.”
The decision made there did not. Agatha C. Hodgins, a Cleveland nurse anesthetist and AANA’s founding president, called the group to order at 2:30 p.m. Kay Sheehan was elected secretary pro tem. Gertrude Fife made the motion, seconded by Aida Allwein: “That a National Association of Nurse Anesthetists be formed.” The motion carried, and by 5:30 p.m., the meeting had adjourned. Read more. |
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