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Key words: AANA history, Agatha Hodgins, Alumnae Association of the Lakeside Hospital School of Anesthesia, Cleveland.
The history of the AANA is undeniably linked to Agatha Hodgins (Figure 1), one of nurse anesthesia's pioneers, but it also is linked to Cleveland, Ohio. For it was in Cleveland that Hodgins' idea for a national organization of nurse anesthetists was bought to life and nurtured in its early years.
Agatha Hodgins was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1877. She traveled to Boston to receive her nursing training at Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses. After graduating in 1900, she was employed as a head nurse at the private pavilion at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland. It was there in 1908 that she caught the eye of prominent surgeon George W. Crile (Figure 2), who decided that she had the necessary qualities to become his anesthetist. By 1909, Hodgins had become highly skilled in the administration of nitrous oxide-oxygen anesthesia, and Crile reported she had sat at the head of the table in 575 major operations.1(p41)
Hodgins' skill as an anesthetist led her to train nurses in the administration of anesthesia starting in 1911. Her teaching continued in the Lakeside Hospital Unit of the American Ambulance in Neuilly, France, during World War I (Figure 3). Upon her return home in 1915, she formalized the Lakeside Hospital School of Anesthesia and served as its director until 1933. In the school's first year, the 6-month course cost $50 and 11 nurses graduated.
The school was soon to be challenged-the Ohio State Medical Board repeatedly warned Crile that only physicians could administer anesthesia. In 1916 the board adopted a resolution that recognition of the Lakeside school and its nurses be denied until the charges that nurse anesthetists were working outside of their scope of practice were disproved. The ensuing debate before the board resulted in the reopening of Lakeside, and students were accepted again in November 1917.
Hodgins presents idea to begin national organization
After years of graduating skilled nurse anesthetists, the Alumnae Association of the Lakeside Hospital School of Anesthesia was formed in 1923. Although inactive for 3 years, the association reformed in 1926 with 133 names submitted for membership. At its first meeting that year, Hodgins presented...