The history of the nurse anesthesia profession is a bit murky as records weren’t kept well through the years as medicine and healthcare progressed, but there are opinions on who the first anesthetist was. Today we’ll examine the most likely candidates with our historians Nancy Bruton-Maree, CRNA, and Sandy Ouellette, CRNA, and try to determine who can claim the title of the real first anesthetist.

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What we discuss in this episode: 

3:00 – Background on this topic

6:36 – History books on anesthesia

10:21 – Historical information

15:08 – Humphry Davy

16:16 – Crawford Long  

17:51 – Horace Wells  

19:27 – William Morton

22:35 – James Simpson

23:06 – John Snow

28:39 – The real first anesthetist according to AANA

33:56 – Who was in the earliest American hospitals?  

38:08 – Disputes  

40:44 – The role nuns played

42:58 – The evolution of names for anesthetists

46:32 – Sandy’s opinion on first anesthetists

48:21 – Final thoughts

Resources mentioned on the show: 

The Wondrous Story of Anesthesia

The Etherist Podcast

The Global Voice for Nurse Anesthesia - IFNA (1989-2021)