PANA Supports U.S. Air Force Heritage Ball

On Saturday, November 2nd, the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) was proud to support the inaugural U.S. Air Force Heritage Ball. Sponsored by the 911th Air Wing and the 911th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, the event was hosted by the Heinz Field Club in Pittsburgh.

More than 650 military and civic leaders attended this inaugural event. PANA Board Member, Lt. Col. (R) Laura Wiggins, DNP, MSN, CRNA, represented PANA. Speaking to the longstanding history and legacy of CRNAs in the military, Laura highlighted the contributions that Pennsylvania CRNAs make to military surgical teams.

Additionally, Lt. Col. Chuck Giordano, DNP, CRNA was lead planner of the Air Force Heritage Ball Event. The U.S. Air Force Museum Curator also attended with many military artifacts from the museum on display. One featured artifact was a parachute constructed for a military working dog during the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949). This rarely seen artifact allowed military dogs to actually “jump” from the aircraft.

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PANA AF Heritage Ball

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Valerie Gaydos, 44th District PA House o

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PANA was honored to serve as the headlining sponsor of the Air Force Heritage Ball, which helped defray costs for the junior enlisted members that were in attendance. Several non-military CRNAs attended to represent PANA’s continued support of all military members.

CRNAs were the first professional group to provide anesthesia in the United States and are the oldest recognized group of advanced practice registered nurse specialists in the country, with a history that spans to the Civil War.

Nurse anesthetists like Shirley Gordner forged the way for CRNAs today

Pennsylvania now has more than 3,000 certified registered nurse anesthetists and ranks among the top states for CRNA students nationwide, with 12 university-level nurse anesthetist programs spread across the state. But things were much different when Shirley (Kishbaugh) Gordner graduated in the mid-1950s.

Shirley was among just three student nurse anesthetists who comprised the first class at Williamsport Hospital and, in 1954, successfully completed examinations for membership in the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA).

It was uncharted territory then. The hospital had only received AANA’s certification for the 16-month nurse anesthetist course the previous year. At the time, Williamsport Hospital in Lycoming County was the only hospital in central Pennsylvania to even host a school for anesthetists. The other options were 90 miles away in Harrisburg or 80 miles north along the New York border in Sayre, distances made all the longer by rural routes.

Today, CRNAs are recognized for their rich history and well-established traditions. But it was trailblazers like Shirley who helped to establish the culture of safe, responsible anesthesia care that continues to this day.

For Shirley, who in 1952 became a registered nurse, a requirement for AANA membership and certification even today, becoming a nurse anesthetist was the next step in a health-care career that would span nearly half a century.

After receiving her certification, she stayed on at Williamsport Hospital for a few months and put her anesthesia training to use for patients there. But professional and personal changes meant a move.

Shirley moved to Berwick in Columbia County, where she would spend most of the next 20-plus years as an operation recovery room nurse and an emergency room nurse and another two decades as the head nurse for a beloved private practice doctor on Berwick’s West End.

Her husband, Carl, an Air Force veteran, worked mornings maintaining HVAC systems at Wise Foods, the makers of Wise Potato Chips. Shirley, still devoted to caring for others, worked for a time at Berwick Hospital on the second shift, from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., as the couple raised two sons.

Whatever they had to do, they did. Carl worked at the plant for 40 years before retiring. Shirley retired in 1992. She passed away in 2014. Carl survives, as do their two sons.

According to family, although her time as a nurse anesthetist was short, the achievement she felt for being among the first in her class was something she held dearly and spoke of fondly. And that desire to provide the best care possible carried with her throughout her career.

As a tribute to his mother, her youngest son, state Sen. John R. Gordner (R-Columbia), has introduced legislation (S.B. 274) that would formally recognize nurse anesthetists as “CRNAs” under Pennsylvania statute. He grew up experiencing her love for the profession.

“She really enjoyed spending time with patients, listening to them, getting to know them,” Sen. Gordner said. “For as long as she worked, she was always an old-school nurse. There were no 10-minute appointments. She used to say that you can learn a lot more about a patient by listening than by being just diagnostic. She was very personable, and that came out in how she did her job.”

Because of his mother’s work, Sen. Gordner has been a long-time champion of nurse anesthetists. He was a featured speaker at the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ spring symposium in Hershey in May 2015, when he was awarded PANA’s prestigious Leadership Award.

“I probably wouldn’t be a state legislator today without my mother having all the connections she had and being so beloved in the community,” Sen. Gordner said.

Now, as Senate Majority Whip, one of the highest-ranking positions in the state Senate, Sen. Gordner is set to help finish something his mother started by making sure more people are aware of nurse anesthetists and the work they do.

Currently, there is no definition for “certified registered nurse anesthetist” under the state’s Professional Nursing Law, meaning these professionals are recognized only as registered nurses. Pennsylvania remains one of just four states that do not recognize CRNAs in this manner.

Sen. Gordner’s professional designation bill would remedy that and formally recognize CRNAs for the advanced training and education they undergo and the skills they administer to help patients — skills that Shirley (Kishbaugh) Gordner spent a lifetime perfecting.

This piece was originally posted on Medium.com.

Without CRNA designation in Pa., nurse anesthetists face challenges

Lt. Col. Laura Wiggins, a critical care nurse and reservist in the U.S. Air Force, was the only anesthesia provider on her base when she was deployed to Kyrgyzstan in 2006. That’s not uncommon. CRNAs usually are the primary anesthesia providers in austere combat theaters, and often the only anesthesia providers in the military’s forward surgical teams.

A native of Johnstown, Pa., Wiggins received her bachelor’s degree in 1994 from Penn State University and graduated in 2003 from the Bethesda, Md.-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, one of the top-ranked schools in the country for CRNAs. Wiggins currently is enrolled in the Doctorate of Nursing Practice Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

While deployed and on active duty, she was able to practice to the fullest extent of her education and training, putting her skills to work as an advanced practice registered nurse credentialed provider. At home, it was an entirely different story.

CRNA Designation in Pa.

Pennsylvania, where Wiggins took her state board exams, is one of only four states that fail to recognize the CRNA designation in some form. There is no definition for “certified registered nurse anesthetist” under the state’s Professional Nursing Law, meaning Wiggins and other professionals like her are recognized only as registered nurses (RNs), not CRNAs.

Without that designation from Pennsylvania, Wiggins, a reservist who is approaching 20 years of military service, needs other state credentials to continue her work on behalf of the USAF Nurse Corps to serve as a credentialed provider while ensuring that military members and veterans have access to care. She currently is an RN in Ohio with a Certificate of Authority to practice as a CRNA, and as an RN in Virginia, where she is licensed as an Advanced Practice Nurse, which covers CRNAs.

The inability to be recognized as a CRNA in her home state brings many challenges --- logistically and financially.

Not only are the costs of licensing going up in each state each year, but new continuing education requirements also keep popping up. That means more out-of-pocket expenses to renew the license, finding conferences that offer the appropriate CEUs that are required, and paying more to travel out of state to obtain the CEUs, background checks and other legal requirements she needs to stay licensed and credentialed as a CRNA in the military. Getting the time off to maintain all of these requirements is an added expense.

This isn’t a problem unique to just Wiggins and other veterans, either. Pennsylvania CRNAs on humanitarian missions find it harder to get credentialed when offering their services overseas.

Legislative Fix Essential

The state legislature wrapped up its two-year 2015-16 legislative session without fully addressing the issue of CRNA designation. The Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee unanimously approved legislation (S.B. 481) in June to officially recognize CRNAs under Pennsylvania statute. But the measure never made it to the full Senate for consideration. A companion bill (H.B. 764) died in the House without a vote. Both measures must be reintroduced in the 2017-18 legislative session, which begins in January.

“The burden is on us,” Wiggins said. “It’s a nurse fix. I’m fixing [the designation issues] on my end as I’m waiting for the legislature to fix it on their end. And it’s getting more and more expensive to fix. Each year it’s worse.”

Wiggins, who lives in Cheswick, located along the Allegheny River about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, works for UPMC and Anesthesiology Services Network. While she works mostly in Pennsylvania, she also practices in Ohio, picking up shifts or covering for vacations to stay licensed there. She also keeps her certification in Virginia to maintain her scope of practice for military service.

CRNAs are trained for procedures such as epidurals and spinals for orthopedic and obstetrical anesthesia; central venous catheter placement for complicated surgeries that require the possibility of transfusions and closer monitoring; and peripheral nerve blocks that are excellent pain management techniques for the wounded warrior. Wiggins expertly administered those procedures without any complications when she was the only anesthesia provider on base. Stateside in Pennsylvania, she can’t perform those same tasks without a supervising physician.

“If this state would just recognize what we do already,” Wiggins said. “Nurse Anesthetists have been administering anesthesia on the battlefield since the Civil War. Pennsylvania is over 150 years behind the times in recognizing our profession.”

Defining CRNA in Pennsylvania law is the first step. The act would carry across borders and finally give CRNAs the recognition they deserve in Pennsylvania.

Learn more about CRNAs in Pennsylvania at www.PANAforQualityCare.com. Additional details are available via Twitter at @PANACRNA and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PANACRNA.