AANA Journal course: update for nurse anesthetists--outcome measures in anesthesiology: are we going in the right...

Anesthesia care appears to be a remarkably safe enterprise. Improvements in the "safety" of the process can be attributed to technological, pharmacological, cognitive, and behavioral factors. One yardstick by which we measure the impact of change is by the study of outcomes. This installment of the AANA Journal course deals with the issue of "safety" and the role that outcome studies play in quantifying its evolution.