Longtime CRNA Champion Sen. Gordner Retires

Pennsylvania Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia County, is resigning his Senate seat on Wednesday to become counsel to interim President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County. 📷 File/Mark Pynes

State Sen. John Gordner, a Republican who has represented parts of northcentral Pennsylvania for the past three decades, will vacate his 27th Senatorial District seat on Nov. 30 to take a new role among the Senate leadership. He announced his decision Monday.

Gordner has been a longtime champion of nurse anesthetists, sponsoring the Senate measure (S.B. 416) that became law (Act 60 of 2021) last legislative session, granting formal title recognition to the state’s CRNAs.

Because of his work—and after more than a decade of legislative advocacy by CRNAs around the state—nurse anesthetists finally got the recognition they deserve. Until then, Pennsylvania had been one of just two states that failed to recognize “certified registered nurse anesthetist” in some form, meaning CRNAs were recognized only as registered nurses.

Besides title recognition, Act 60 also expanded the providers that CRNAs are permitted to work with to include podiatrists, and it clarified regulatory language as it pertains to physician involvement with anesthesia services, formalizing the status quo.

The push to formally recognize CRNAs was a family affair for Gordner.

His mother, Shirley (Kishbaugh) Gordner, 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).

Gordner isn’t leaving the legislature entirely. He will become counsel to interim Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, whose own daughter is a CRNA in another state.

💙On behalf of PANA, we extend a heartfelt thank you to John Gordner for all he did and congratulated him and wish him the best of luck in his new role.

CRNAs in the News: John Borza, NY City Marathoner

John Borza, a CRNA from Pittsburgh, recently became a New York City marathoner. John ran in a shirt that represented PANA and CRNAs; and in support of this sponsorship, PANA made a $2,500 donation to the American Heart Association in John’s name.

🫀 In July of 2017, John Borza became a heart attack survivor. The hardworking CRNA realized committing to bettering his health and wellness was not only a must, but a gift. John’s determination led him through cardiac rehabilitation, and meeting with a nutritionist, to strengthen his commitment to being “focused on staying healthy to be able to enjoy the rest of my life,” and he’s done just that.

While John has a fierce dedication to developing his own health and wellness, he is also dedicated to improving the health and wellness of others. Throughout his marathon training, John was tallying up miles to take to NYC and donations from his community to give the American Heart Association.

🎽 John explains that "as a heart attack survivor, it's amazing to consider myself part of the American Heart Association Heart and Stroke Marathon Team in the New York City Marathon. Thanks to PANA, a donation in my name to the American Heart Association means so much." The donation PANA made will contribute to helping fund medical breakthroughs, programs advancing cardiovascular health, and life-saving research.

John’s devotion demonstrates the fundamentals PANA proudly upholds and promotes to its member CRNAs and SRNAs:

“Supporting each other in our wellness journeys and prioritizing our mental health and wellness is why being part of an organization like PANA is so incredible.”

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PANA proudly recognizes John’s contributions, advancements, and improvements to his own and others’ health and wellness. We are happy to support John and the CRNA profession. Congratulations, John!

Structural Racism and Its Impact on Nurse Anesthetists

October 2022

PANA is seeking a more inclusive and diverse nurse anesthetist membership and workforce. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2022) generated statements of task based on the Structural Racism and Rigorous Models of Social Inequity: Proceedings of a Workshop symposium conducted in Washington, DC May 16-17, 2022. The three Academies assembled to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions (NAP, 2022). The information gleaned from this symposium has application to the stated goals of PANA 1) Advance Professionalism, 2) Promote Quality of Care, and 3) Advocate and Educate.

Addressing PANA goal number 1: Advance Professionalism, there was information disclosed focusing upon how structural racism and anti-racist practices impact health disparities and health inequities. It comes down to three pivotal areas for PANA’s attention to influence the knowledge of current professionals and to encourage a more robust professional overture in the immediate future of current diversity attention: 1) review the national and state levels for the attention to social inequality as they result in poor health outcomes; 2) review the multidimensional (and varied intersectional) research on impact of health resources on marginalized populations. The Saturday, August 27, 2022, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion presentation by Dr. Veronica Carey, Assistant Dean for Diversity Equity, and Inclusion for Drexel University addressed 6 (six) various intersections for the PANA Board’s attention: race, ethnicity, culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The final application to the first goal is 3) review how minoritized [Pennsylvanians] view the health field and its practices. These may seem lofty, but when chunked can most certainly offer pathways to advancing professionalism of nurse anesthetists in Pennsylvania.

Goal number 2 of Promoting Quality of Care for PANA lends itself to the information gleaned from the symposium as well with respect to the connection of structural racism to social determinants of health. Hedy Lee, professor of sociology at Duke University, reminds us not to be distracted by the shiny and new data but instead structural racism data may be new, but structural racism is not new and has foundation in the United States. Structural racism looks like colonization, genocide and current but overt population health differences (Lee, 2022 personal communication). Cornel West, professor at Harvard University and prolific writer and presenter on diversity, equity and inclusion, speaks about the value gap and weapons of distraction in higher education (AIA, 2020). West (2018) proffers the value gap pertains to the fact that most Americans focus upon the wealth, empathy, and achievement gaps and the false ideal that some persons are valued more than others (value gap). To close the value gap, habits must change at institutions that perpetuate the value gap (unwittingly is an implicit bias). West (2018) continues to share that [PANA] may be susceptible to the weapons of distraction, for example, calling issues a problem when it is a catastrophe or needing to be the ‘smartest’ in the room (majority rule) when the outliers in the crowd may offer other insights (Harper & Davis, 2020). Instead, PANA can achieve the second goal of Promoting Quality of Care by being sensitive to the vulnerable in both the 3,500 memberships in Pennsylvania and the 56,000 memberships nationwide of nurse anesthetists. PANA might shape the Board in a way to illustrate inclusion, be Socratic to the core, and be prepared to defend the decisions to grow the field from an inclusionary posture.

Advocation and education, goal 3 of PANA, aligns with information addressed at the symposium pertaining to ensuring the work done has the potential both to contribute to well-being, reduce [diversity] disparities, and improve population health (NAP, 2022). PANA’s goal of advocacy would look like thinking about racism only as a form of prejudice makes it impossible to understand the drivers of structural racism; instead, a theoretical understanding of the racialized social system would be beneficial (Glaude, 2018). Education, on the other hand, would resemble addressing current pedagogy, evaluating diversity within curriculum, instating andragogy (Malcome Knowles) as a strategy for including the adult student in the learning process, and reducing the sense of invisibility amongst disenfranchised, marginalized and minoritized faculty, student, and employed alumni of PANA.

References

AIA Resource page for Guides for Equitable Practice (2020). https://www.aia.org/resources/6246433-guides-for-equitable-practice

Eakins, A. & Eakins, S. (2017). African American students at predominately white institutions: A collaborative style cohort recruitment and retention model. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 13(2), 51-57.

Glaude, E. (2018). Racism is a congenital disease. Retrieved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfK4jGstcO8

Harper, S.R.& Davis, C.H.F. (2020). Eight actions to reduce racism in college classrooms. American Association of University Professors.

National Academies Press (2022). 26690.pdf

Ohio State University: Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity: http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/research/understanding-implicit-bias/

West, C. (2018). Speaking truth to power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bc6TRjptKI