School of Allied Health
Kansas Governor honors nurse anesthetists
Feb 2, 2009
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has proclaimed the week of January 25 - 31, 2009 as Nurse Anesthetists Week.
The proclamation also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ yearly celebration.
Governor Kathleen Sebelius, seated, meets with members of the KUMC Nurse Anesthesia Education program. From left, KUMC student Charles Herring, KANA president Nancy Whitson, KUMC Nurse Anesthetist Education chair Donna Nyght and KUMC student Dustin Bozwell.
To help raise awareness about their profession, University of Kansas Nurse Anesthesia Education students, as well as students from Newman University, Kansas Wesleyan University and members of the Kansas Association of Nurse Anesthetists, traveled to Topeka to meet with Gov. Sebelius.
In addition to their meeting with the governor, KUMC students Dustin Bozwell and Charles Herring met with various legislators and spoke before the Committee on Health Care and Human Services.
Bozwell and Herring stressed the importance of nurse anesthetists in rural health care settings during their presentation and in the question-and-answer session that followed.
“Today, certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) administer approximately 65 percent of the more than 26 million anesthetics given in the United States each year,” Bozwell said. “However in Kansas, CRNAs make up 70 percent of the anesthesia providers, and 83 percent of the hospitals in our state rely exclusively on CRNAs for anesthesia care.”
The KU Nurse Anesthesia Education program, which is organized under the School of Allied Health, also marked the occasion at the KU Medical Center. Throughout the week, the program held on-campus events to highlight the nurse anesthesia profession and their contributions to Kansas.
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As one of the largest schools of its kind, the KU School of Allied Health has more than 20 academic programs and 570 students. The School has clinical sites throughout Kansas and the United States, in addition to international affiliations; multi-year grant funding that increased by 3.7 percent in FY ’07; and five top-25 rankings for its graduate programs from U.S. News & World Report.
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