SASA Practice Guidelines 2022: Anaesthesia support personnel

Abstract

The availability of competent assistance to the anaesthesiologist/anaesthetist/anaesthesia provider (hereafter called anaesthesiologist) by an anaesthetic/anaesthesia assistant, i.e., a dedicated anaesthetic nurse or theatre technician, is considered fundamental to the safe conduct of anaesthesia. Research by Künzle et al. has shown that shared leadership, teamwork, anaesthesia-specific training and skilled assistance can minimise harm from adverse incidents. Conversely, inadequate or incompetent anaesthesia assistance has been shown to contribute to and/or fail to mitigate harm during peri-anaesthesia periods.