Reentry of the Addicted Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist

Abstract

Although not extensive, there is a body of literature pertaining to addiction and reentry to practice in health care providers (HCPs), including nurses, physicians, and anesthesiologists. Yet very little has been published regarding addiction and practice reentry among Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist s (CRNA), a population of HCPs at unique risk for developing addiction. This paper provides an extensive review of the literature pertaining to reentry of the recovering CRNA and relevant topics thereof. Discovered is that that there are clear gaps in knowledge about reentry to practice in general, and that available data are quite dated. The results of reentry studies in the anesthesiologist are conflicting, and across the research literature, flaws in design and operationalization of successful reentry are evident. Further, although extant recommendations for reentry tend to be consistent across sources, there is very little empirical data to support them. Acknowledging limited understanding of the issues associated with reentry to practice for the CRNA, consideration of the role of “cues” in the practice environment is proposed as a fruitful approach for studying the successful return of these advanced practice nurses to the workplace.