The International Federation of Nurse Anaesthetists (IFNA) is a global organisation representing the speciality of nurse anaesthetists.

British Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association (BARNA) has for many years been the UK representative for IFNA. Manda Dunne (BARNA Chairman) currently serves on the IFNA Executive Committee Board and is the CNR (Country Representative) for the United Kingdom.

The next IFNA Congress will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May 2012. Please check out the advertisement (http://www.wcna.2012.com/home/).

Currently, BARNA has bid to host the 2016 IFNA World Congress. Both Liverpool and Glasgow have put in excellent bids. Bergen in Norway is the only other competitor. The outcome will be known at the 2012 Congress.

Accreditation of nurse anaesthesia education programmes:

Accreditation

In June 2010 the Anaesthesia Programme approval process was launched and has been very successful. Many programmes leading up to full Accreditation have been reviewed and successful courses in the Netherlands, United States of America, Iceland, Sweden and France have been approved. All details about these programmes including curriculum details can be viewed on the IFNA website www.ifna-int.org

The Education Committee has proposed as an IFNA foundation project to found a grant proceeding to a full Accreditation evaluation based on the Education Committee recommendations. Out of 7 applying programmes for this Accreditation pilot project one has been selected, the Nurses Anaesthesia Program based in Paris, France.

Practice Committee:

A new Practice Committee has been formed and has met twice already. This committee has been very active and productive. They are revising and updating the IFNA Standards of Practice, Monitoring Standards and Code of Ethics. It has been proposed to have all standards (Education, Practice and Monitoring) and the Code of Ethics produced in a single document with the same preamble and introduction page, including the IFNA objectives, Vision and Mission statements.

One of the aims of the IFNA is to have a better view of the nurse anaesthesia practice worldwide. The Practice Committee has developed an international survey, based on one published in the European Journal of Anaesthesia. This survey will be sent to all country representatives and International Congress of Nursing in order to have global information, wider than with only IFNA member countries.

Membership:

The IFNA is very happy to say they have a new member country. The Executive Committee unanimously approved the Ethiopian Nurse Anaesthesia Organisation for membership. Our colleagues from Ethiopia are most welcome.

World Congress:

The next World Congress will be in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The organising committee is working very hard on this, and has achieved an excellent scientific programme. The National Organising Committee has already been promoting the Congress in different countries and we are expecting to have a lot of participants. All information is available on the Congress website: http://www.wcna.2012.com/home/

Three candidates have been for hosting the World Congress in 2016. These are Liverpool in United Kingdom, Glasgow in Scotland and Bergen in Norway.

On-site visits will be organised and a decision will be made in May 2012. There have been issues around fixing a lower fee for countries that cannot afford to send delegates at the full rate. Therefore, a reduced registration fee will be available to participants coming from countries listed by the World Bank as Low, Middle and Lower incomes countries.