CRNAs from Pa. Take Home Awards During AANA Congress

As if it couldn’t get any better … PANA and Sarah weren’t the only ones to take home awards at AANA’s Annual Congress in San Diego. Other national award winners included:

🏆 Clinical Instructor of the Year:

Rachel A. Wolfe, DNP, CRNA, CCRN, CPN 

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hamot School of Anesthesia 

• Hear from Rachel below or read AANA's release on the award HERE. 

More Photos of Rachel:

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🏆 Janice Drake CRNA Humanitarian Award:

Dr. Bimpe “Bebe” Adenusi, PhD, CRNA, APRN, CNE, FAANA, FNAP 

Program Director, Cedar Crest College Nurse Anesthesia Program 

• Read AANA’s release about Bebe’s award HERE. 

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🏆Fellows of The AANA Induction Ceremony: 

Dr. Angelarosa DiDonato, DNP, CRNA 

Associated Program Director, University of Pennsylvania 

• Read AANA’s program about fellows featuring Angela HERE. 

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🏆 John F. Garde Researcher of the Year: 

Dr. John O’Donnell, DrPH, CRNA, FAANA, FSSH 

Professor & Founding Chair, Department of Nurse Anesthesia at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing 

• Read AANA’s release about John’s award HERE. 

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Once again, congratulations to PANA and all its winning members for representing our profession so well and for bringing home these awards to Pennsylvania! We are so proud of all of you!!! We cannot wait until #AANA2025!

PANA and Sarah Trau Take Home National Awards at AANA Annual Congress

Congratulations, PANA & Sarah!

Association & CRNA Sarah Trau Take Home National Awards at Annual Congress

The 2023-24 AANA Communications Committee announced that both the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) and Sarah Trau, MS, CRNA, won national awards for their public relations and communications work over the last year.

PANA won the award for Best Promotional Effort for National CRNA Week and Sarah won for Best Public Relations Effort by an Individual for all her work to ramp up communications among the association! (Learn more about these awards on AANA’s website HERE.)

Pictured: Sarah Trau, MS, CRNA

We are so proud of Sarah, who chairs PANA’s Communications Committee, and the whole crew for bringing home these individual and team awards, which were handed out Aug. 3 during AANA’s Awards and Recognition Luncheon at Annual Congress in San Diego.

Both PANA and Sarah’s efforts impressed the committee, which recognized their overall contributions to the positive image of the nurse anesthesiology profession.

During National CRNA Week in Pa. on Jan. 21-27, PANA ran a multi-faceted campaign that featured a variety of organic social media posts, paid digital ads, and traditional media spots to reach members and the public on the platforms where they get their information.

Among the first-of-its-kind projects for PANA, the association officially launched its TikTok account, spearheaded by Sarah and featuring videos of CRNAs talking about their profession and wishing members a happy CRNA Week. Be sure to check out the page: https://www.tiktok.com/@panacrna!

Overall, the campaign was a huge success, with engagement rates ranking above baselines for similar advocacy and awareness campaigns, meaning people not only saw the messages, but they engaged and shared them widely.

With its formal launch during CRNA Week, PANA’s TikTok account received more than 1,900 video views among 1,400 unique viewers. The campaign resulted in 65 profile views, 96 likes and 27 shares. Under Sarah’s leadership, the platform continues to grow in popularity and will remain a critical tool going forward with member engagement.

If you missed anything during CRNA Week, or just want to relive some of the news, especially after these national team and individual awards, please visit the campaign website: https://www.panaforqualitycare.com/2024-crna-week.

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GALLERY:

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Related:

• CRNAs from Pa. Take Home Awards During AANA Annual Congress 

PANA PRESIDENT: Enhanced Leadership, Increased Engagement, Mentorship Key to Growing Profession

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:

Laura Wiggins, DNP, CRNA

Lt. Col. (R), U.S. Air Force

It is a pleasure and honor to be assuming the role of President of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA). I am looking forward to serving the membership in the upcoming year. There certainly is no shortage of work to do.

Our Government Relations Team and Government Relations Director, Jessica Poole, are confronting several issues in Harrisburg. I attended a meeting there Oct. 27 with the Department of State and the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs on behalf of PANA and our members. During this meeting, they discussed the antiquated PALS system and license renewals within the state of Pennsylvania. PANA is trying to determine how our new title designation will be processed through this system, or any other system the state develops. We learned several things at this meeting, but the most important thing is not to delay renewing any licenses. Get them done as soon as you receive notification because there will be obvious growing pains in activating a new system and removing the old PALS system.

As your new PANA President, I am setting the following goals for our association:

• Enhance the leadership of the board of directors;

• Increase member engagement; and

• Mentor our future leaders

I think as CRNAs we are experts at patient care and clinical competence. I feel that we are sometimes lacking in the leadership realm. I hope to improve on this within our board by encouraging participation in the AANA Leadership Summit and offering other leadership training throughout the year. Advocacy continues to be one of our main priorities, especially during an election year. We need to be out in front, meeting with our legislators and forming long-lasting relationships with legislative aides, legislators and lobbyists to solidify our position on various health-care issues that will present themselves within the coming year. Leadership in this area is a priority and necessity. We are fully expecting legislation to be re-introduced in the next session, which begins in January 2023, to license anesthesiologist assistants (AAs) for the first time in Pennsylvania. The connections and relationships we form now with lawmakers will be extremely important in helping us maintain our position and will help us with gains in propelling the profession forward.

I also hope to increase member engagement by communicating with members directly on issues that affect our profession. PANA’s Communications Director, Sarah Trau, will help facilitate this huge undertaking. She will be working with the team at Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy to make sure our members are in the know and kept informed. My hope is that as we increase engagement, more members will participate in district events and other educational activities and political action committee (PAC) events.

Finally, mentoring our future leaders is extremely important in ensuring the ongoing success and trajectory of the profession. Please encourage student involvement at every level of participation! I am motivated and encouraged by the excitement and enthusiasm of the SRNAs we have on the PANA board. Hopefully, their enthusiasm is contagious and will be felt by all of the members in the coming months.

I remain committed to helping this profession succeed in this time of uncertainty. With change there is always room for opportunity. Advancing our profession is worth the fight. If you have any ideas or suggestions for upcoming PANA events or want to know how to contact your legislators, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am looking forward to working with all of you and serving this association.