There’s a New Home for Latine CRNAs and It’s Being Built Together

The Anesthesia Brief  ·  Issue #13

If you're thinking it, we're talking about it.

By Marc Smith, DNP, CRNA & Shantall Ruiz Cummins, DNP, CRNA

Six things worth knowing today. Let's get into it.

There’s a New Home for Latine CRNAs and It’s Being Built Together

The Latine Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiology Association, LCA, is in its foundational year, but the energy behind it already feels bigger than an organization. A six-member board of CRNAs with roots in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States is bringing LCA to life, creating a community centered on mentorship, education, advocacy, opportunity, and belonging.

That spirit was clear from the beginning. LCA’s founding meeting took place during the AANA Annual Congress in Boston, with support from fellow minority nurse-anesthesia organizations, including the Filipino CRNA Association, the Cameroon CRNA Association, the Latin RN Association, and others. It was a meaningful display of what can happen when communities show up for one another not to compete for space, but to help create more of it.

LCA is for practicing CRNAs, but it is also intentionally making room for RRNAs and nurses considering the path. On October 19 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. CDT, three student representatives will host the organization’s first public Q&A for anyone exploring nurse anesthesia. Follow LCA for details on how to join.

For Latine nurses and students who have not always seen themselves reflected in anesthesia, this is more than a new organization. It is a community saying: there is room for you here.

Why it matters: It's a new national professional home organizing mentorship, education, and advocacy specifically for Latine CRNAs, RRNAs, and nursing students on that path.

Our take is at the bottom of this issue ↓

The Saline Bag That Isn't Saline

Why it matters: Reading only the overwrap risks pushing concentrated potassium instead of saline into a line, a mistake with no clinical margin for error.

Act This Week: A voluntary recall found 100 mL bags labeled 0.9% sodium chloride that actually contain concentrated potassium chloride, lot 1042188, NDC 0990-7984-23. Read the inner bag, not the overwrap, before you piggyback or dilute anything from that stock this week. Separately, check your dexmedetomidine premix for lots 87558 and 88802, Par Health pulled them for visible particulate matter.

Delaware's CRNA Bill, Now Law

Why it matters: Delaware CRNAs should check with their state association on what the enacted language actually changes day to day, since a signed bill and a facility's updated policy are two different things.

Scope, Moving: Delaware's HB435, the bill we flagged as moving a few weeks back, is now enacted. Signed August 31, it amends Titles 18, 29, and 31 of the Delaware code covering CRNA practice. It's the only bill anywhere in our tracker with real movement in the last two months, everything else on scope is sitting still.

→ Full scope tracker + your state

This Week's Shortage List

Drug Shortage Flash: The list is steadier this week, more resolutions than new entries. Check the live tracker before you assume your usual substitution is still necessary.

→ Full shortage list

The Sedative You Can Reverse

Why it matters: Watch whether your facility's formulary and pharmacy budget keep pace with the literature, since the evidence here is already ahead of the supply chain.

Remimazolam is getting more attention because it gives anesthesia professionals a useful option with a different profile from propofol: rapid onset and recovery, metabolism by tissue esterases, and the ability to reverse its sedative effect with flumazenil. Propofol is still a highly effective, versatile mainstay of procedural sedation and anesthesia; this is not a replacement conversation. It is a patient- and procedure-selection conversation.

In procedural-sedation studies, remimazolam has been associated with lower rates of hypotension, bradycardia, respiratory depression, and injection pain than propofol. That may be particularly relevant when preserving hemodynamic stability is a priority, such as in older or medically fragile patients. Flumazenil is a meaningful differentiator, though not an excuse to relax monitoring: patients can still experience respiratory compromise, especially with concomitant opioids, and re-sedation after reversal remains a consideration.

→ Tech watch

On LCA's Foundational Year

We attended LCA’s founding meeting at AANA in Boston and left deeply moved by what we witnessed. As board members shared the stories behind their journeys into nurse anesthesia, the sacrifices, obstacles, persistence, and people who helped carry them forward, there were moments that brought us to happy tears. This was not simply the launch of another professional organization. It felt like the beginning of a community built to make the path more visible, connected, and possible for those coming next.

What stayed with us most was the support in the room. The Filipino CRNA Association, Cameroon CRNA Association, Latin RN Association, and other minority nurse-anesthesia organizations showed up to stand alongside LCA as it took its first steps. At a time when Latinos and other minority communities remain underrepresented in nurse anesthesia, that kind of unity matters. It was a reminder that representation is not about competing for limited space; it is about building a profession where more people can see themselves, find support, and know they belong.

- Marc & Shantall

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Legislative data, LegiScan & OpenStates (CC BY 4.0). Drug shortage data, ASHP / openFDA. Federal regulatory data, FederalRegister.gov (public domain). Compensation, Marit Health, BLS, AANA.

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