Paul S. Bennetts, Ph.D., CRNA

Professional Background

Paul Bennetts, Ph.D., CRNA, is clinical assistant professor and director of research for the KU Department of Nurse Anesthesia Education. He has more than twenty years of experience in nurse anesthesia practice, having worked nine years for the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and nine years in private practice.

Bennetts served as a nurse anesthetist on active duty in the U.S. Army Reserves in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. In addition, he worked extensively in solo and all-nurse anesthetist group practices in rural hospitals and has also provided locum tenens services to a number of hospitals and surgery centers in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas. Bennetts entered academic nurse anesthesia at KU Medical Center in 2007.

Academic Background
Bennetts received a diploma in nursing from Research Medical Center School of Nursing in 1979 and a bachelor's degree in nursing from Saint Mary University in 1986. A 1989 graduate of KU's nurse anesthesia program, he completed his doctorate in 2013, also from KU.

During his training, he has been recognized with outstanding student awards in both nursing and nurse anesthesia programs and received the 1990 AANA Research in Action award for his master’s thesis work.

Bennetts has been a speaker for the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists national meeting. He was appointed director of research of the department in 2010.

Clinical and Academic Focus
Bennetts is an instructor of didactic courses in advanced physiology, theory and research, regional anesthesia and pain management, evidence-based practice, and senior-level nurse anesthesia theory. His primary clinical responsibility is in teaching cardiothoracic anesthesia in the Center for Advanced Heart Care at The University of Kansas Health System.

Research

Overview

Bennetts’ research interests are in the area of understanding the role of reactive oxygen species in hemorrhagic shock and other models of ischemia-reperfusion injury. His long-term goal is the development of a departmental focus to prepare students as specialists in the evidence-based practice of nurse anesthesia.