PANA PAC Challenge Winner Making a Difference

Julia Dixon-Ernst, MSN, CRNA

Last fall, PANA members had an opportunity to enter a PAC Challenge with each donation made to the campaign. First-place winner Julia Dixon-Ernst, MSN, CRNA, was thrilled to chat with Tidings about her accomplishments and goals as an advocate for both PANA and AANA. Julie currently serves as a trustee on PANA’s Board, and further serves as a State Advocate for Pennsylvania for the AANA Foundation. 

While a nurse anesthesia student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Julie presented at the 2018 AANA Annual Congress. She’s now looking forward to attending her first AANA Mid-Year Assembly in April. 

“Educating lawmakers about what CRNAs do and why we’re important to healthcare is critical to the CRNA profession,” says Julie. “If a CRNA does their job well in the OR, no one hears about it or remembers you,” she pointed out. 

After graduating as a CRNA from the Pitt School of Nursing in 2018, Julie earned an adjunct faculty position and became a clinical coordinator for Pitt. She works full-time on the Trauma Transplant Team at UPMC Presbyterian where she maintains multiple leadership roles, including as chair of #CRNAWeek! Check out the adorable photos below!

UPMC Presbyterian Celebrates Family Day to Kick Off Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Week!

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Julie says her role as a Clinical Coordinator at UPMC Presbyterian helps shepherd students from orientation through graduation. Julie told Tidings she enjoys seeing the students all the way through, witnessing the excitement and anticipation of the first days in the OR transforming into competence and confidence at graduation. 

“Seeing the students grow and develop, from starting out to rotating back to us as senior students is just amazing. Being part of that journey and having the opportunity to help them grow into the best CRNAs they can be is so gratifying,” Julie explained. 

Having benefitted from the mentorship, the continued education and the advocacy tools for CRNAs and students in Pennsylvania since joining PANA, Julie looks forward to similarly helping CRNAs and SRNAs in 2024 and beyond.  

“PANA does a great job taking newer members under their wing and helps them really acclimate to their profession,” Julie added. “Receiving that mentorship and support at an early stage is so important,” she said.  

TAGS: Nurse Anesthetists - CRNA Week - AANA Foundation - #CRNAinPA

Young Eagle program could spark a lifelong love of the air

WENDY DOHERTY FOR THE EXPRESS | June 27, 2022

Abe, age 5, is not old enough to become a Young Eagle yet, but he did get to sit in the cockpit of a Maule M-5. Pilot Randy Kilmer shows him some fine points of the instrumentation. 📷: WENDY DOHERTY/FOR THE EXPRESS

LOCK HAVEN — Imagine taking off in a four-seater plane for the very first time. Where is the door? What kind of seats are these? Can I fly the plane? Your stomach feels the way it does at the start of a roller-coaster ride, doesn’t it?

Now imagine that you are 8 years old.

You’d get a real kick out of the experience, no doubt.

Pilots get a kick out of it, too. They want to share their love for flying, and one way they can is to take kids and teens up into the wild blue yonder for the very first time. These fun, free flights for youth ages 8 through 17 were offered Saturday at the Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven Fly-In, through the nationwide Young Eagles program.

The registration table in front of Piper Aviation Museum was swamped at 10 a.m., but once families were signed in, a number of small planes, plus a helicopter, started taking new Young Eagles on their first flights.

The thrill of flying can hook you, and pilots like to reminisce about the moment they knew they would spend as much of their lives as possible in the air. Moments like that often take place during an earth-bound human’s first experience in the sky, particularly in a small plane.

Years from now, will Melanie Saunders be one of these pilots?

Melanie, age 11, and her sister, Violet, age 8, had their first such adventure in a special plane, the museum’s PA-22 Tri-Pacer, a fabric plane built right here in the mid 50s. The pilot, Eric Cipcic, Is one of only two people allowed to fly this historic aircraft, which is in fabulous condition for its age. He told his young passengers and their parents that Phil Hoy donated the Tri-Pacer to the museum so it could be used for Young Eagles flights.

Cipcic is a flight instructor, a commercial pilot, and more. He said, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years, can you believe it?”

He also works at UPMC in Williamsport. Violet and Melanie’s mother, Megan, knows Eric through work, saw a Young Eagles poster he’d put up, and thought it would be fun for her daughters. She and husband Josh brought the girls to the museum building Saturday, and Eric invited Megan to ride along as his personal guest.

Young Melanie had the co-pilot seat for their adventure.

Cipcic executed the take-off but flew only briefly before handing the controls over to her, and Melanie followed the flight pattern for most of their ride. In the end, she turned the plane toward the runway and Cipcic landed it without a hitch.

Back on the ground, his first words were, “She’s a natural. She needs to be a pilot!”

Melanie simply said, “l got to fly it!”

“Mom was a little terrified in the back,” Megan added with a smile.

Violet wasn’t. She said matter-of-factly that she saw buildings, houses, pools as they flew over the river and town.

“I liked it when we went up and down,” she said.

Each young eagle received mementos of the day, including a personal log book for their time in the air.

The Young Eagles program is sponsored by EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and has reached more than 1 million kids across the country, said Steve Dershimer.

“I’ve taken well over 100 kids up over the years,” he said.

Commercial pilot Randy Kilmer of the Bellefonte area flew kids in a Maule M-5, 235 (horsepower). His T- shirt said it all: “Life is simple — eat, sleep, fly.”

Kilmer flies a Pilates PC-12 commercially, a plane that can take eight passengers.

“I love it,” he said. “I’ve been flying over 50 years.”

His Young Eagles of the day included two 8-year-old girls, Ave and Sylvia.

Ave’s family lives on East Bald Eagle Street, not far from the airport, so it’s natural that the kids take an interest in all things related to planes.

Ave’s mother, Ali, said they watch planes fly over their house from their backyard pool, especially during Sentimental Journey. They took special note of a pink plane, The Pink Panther, and went to the airport to got a closer look at the small aircraft that had been delighting local residents Tuesday through Saturday.

Pictured: Melanie, age 11 with Pilot Eric Cipcic, CRNA, PHRN, MSN 📷: WENDY DOHERTY/FOR THE EXPRESS

“We come down every year during the Fly-In,” Ali said. “This year we saw a sign for the Young Eagles flights.”

Allie and husband Jim have three other children, including two who were busy living their teenage lives on Saturday and missed out on the free flight. Their youngest is Abram, age 5.

Ave went up with her friend Sylvia, of Castanea.

“It was cool,” Ave said. “You got to twist around and fly really high in the air.”

“The (air) hills tickled our bellies!” Sylvia said.

Sylvia’s younger brother, Ben, age 4, waited on the grass with his friend Abe. The boys were not happy that they were too young and had to be on the ground instead of in the air. Kilmer let them sit in his plane instead, and their mothers had a trip to the candy store planned as a consolation prize.

Still, the boys were a bit downcast about the unfairness of always being younger brothers.

Three years from now, though, look for them to get their own Young Eagles log books and have their own amazing experience in a small plane while getting a birds-eye view of their towns.

Perhaps one or both of them will be bit by the flying bug, and nothing will look quite the same.

View original article

Pittsburgh Magazine Honors Hometown Heroes with 2021 Excellence in Nursing Awards

A Salute to Nurses By RACHEL WEAVER LABAR | Photos by LAURA PETRILLA

The pandemic has killed more than 700,000 Americans, a disproportionate number of whom were people of color or the underserved. This crisis has taken a heavy toll on the nursing community — especially those who served on the front lines, supporting patients and helping families communicate with their very ill loved ones.

But as harrowing as this has been, I’ve often felt inspired and hopeful.

Why? Because COVID-19 has shown the world the important role nurses play in health care — not because they have no fear but because they approach their work and care for patients despite their fear with the utmost compassion.

On behalf of the Pittsburgh community, I would like to extend our collective thanks, gratitude and appreciation to all of the nurses and nursing students who responded to those in need. Join me in congratulating the 2021 Excellence in Nursing Award recipients who are recognized in this issue. They have demonstrated extraordinary dedication and courage.

– Mary Ellen Glasgow Dean and Professor, Duquesne University School of Nursing; Chair, Pittsburgh Magazine Excellence in Nursing Selection Committee

View the nominees!

Excellence In Nursing – Pandemic Response Hero: Pauline Hutsler Excellence in Nursing – Leader: Maribeth McLaughlin Excellence In Nursing – Emerging Leader: Jeffrey Bomba Excellence In Nursing – Advanced Practitioner: Maj. William Pileggi Excellence In Nursing – Clinician: Shenoa Jamieson Excellence in Nursing – Community: Alexis Myers Excellence In Nursing – Academic: Ruth Madden Foreman Excellence In Nursing – Researcher: Alison Colbert

HONORABLE MENTION

Pandemic Response Hero

Mark Cashioli, Infusion Nurse, Chartwell Specialty Pharmacy Jonna L. Morris, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Judith A. Shovel, Improvement Specialist, Clinical Improvement Department, Wolff Center at UPMC

Leadership Krista Bragg, Chief Operating Officer, Allegheny Health Network Christin M. Durham, Associate Chief Nurse, Primary Care, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System Nancy Gross, RN Director, Butler Health System Geralyn Lee, Clinical Director, UPMC Home Healthcare

Emerging Leader Ashleigh Anderson, Senior Professional Staff Nurse, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Tammy Barker-Fleming, Unit Director Neuro/Trauma, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital Leanne Feil, ER Case Management Access Nurse, Butler Health System Amber Kolesar, Instructor and Director, Second-Degree BSN Program, Duquesne University School of Nursing Tara Stickley, Unit Director, Womancare Birth Center, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Advanced Practitioner Erin Q. Dieter, Palliative Medicine, Excela Health Medical Group Joyce Knestrick, Associate Professor, George Washington University School of Nursing (Visiting Professor; Family Nurse Practitioner from Washington, Pa.) Charles Warner, Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Medicine, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Clinician Mandy Emmick, Registered Nurse/Case Manager, UPMC Home Healthcare Christopher Hornberger, Registered Nurse, 7T Telemetry, Butler Memorial Hospital Catherine “Caty” Thomas, Clinical Education Specialist, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Community Mary Jo Bellush and Deborah Schotting, Infection Preventionists, Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital Elizabeth DiLembo, Project Manager, COVID Vaccine Clinic, Quality, Clinical Documentation Specialist, Excela Health

Academic Janet Barber, Standardized Patient Manager, Robert Morris University Richard Henker, Professor, Department of Nurse Anesthesia, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Rebecca Kronk, Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Duquesne University

Researcher Susan W. Wesmiller, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing