There has been a flurry of activity over nurses’ roles in anaesthetics. Here, Rose Bailey urges everyone concerned to stop and think about the effects on patient care, while anaesthetist Venkata Alladi suggests how nurses could extend the skills they already possess

What do Austria, Benin, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Iceland, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and Zaire have in common? They are all members of the International Federation of Nurse Anaesthetists (IFNA).