It's here! The Beyond the Mask podcast taping from PANA's Spring Symposium in Hershey! #ICYMI in person, Jeremy Stanley, CFP, AIF and Sharon Pearce, MSN, CRNA sat down with #CRNAinPA Brett Fadgen back on Saturday, May 6th to hear more about his personal story, which includes a timeline of the innovations and opportunities for CRNAs, once believed to be unattainable.
Episode Description
đŤJeremy and Sharon were up in Hershey for the PANA Spring Symposium and hosted a live taping of the podcast with Brett Fadgen, MSN, CFRN, CRNA. If you havenât heard Brettâs story, itâs a remarkable one about perseverance and never giving up in the face of lifeâs challenges. Join us to hear all about his journey and how he became the only one-armed nurse anesthetist.
Here are some of the things youâll learn on this show:
đš Brettâs childhood and growing up with a congenital defect. (3:21)
đš The journey from being a paramedic to RN to anesthesia school. (9:05)
đš The challenges he faced in anesthesia school. (13:47)
đš The contact he has with other people with limitations that are interested in anesthesia. (23:55)
đš What questions do patients ask? (26:15)
đš The final message Brett has for people. (32:00)
đ§ Listen to this episode below via Spotify or via Soundcloud.
Advanced Practice Provider Spotlight: Certified registered nurse anesthetist shares perspective on caring for diverse patients
Advanced practice providers (APPs) play an integral role in meeting the needs of Penn State Healthâs increasingly diverse patient populations. With their advanced training and credentials, these professionals expand access to high-quality care, build trust with patients and are a valuable aspect of patientsâ overall experience.
Prolung Ngin, a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, said she was inspired to become a health care practitioner at a young age when she was her motherâs interpreter during her doctorâs visits and hospitalizations. Her family had fled Cambodia as political refugees and settled in the United States, where Ngin said she admired the doctors and nurses who cared for her mother. That motivated her to learn to care for her mother and others as well.
Ngin studied to become a nurse at Villanova University near Philadelphia and planned to become a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner. Part of her pediatric critical care transport training involved performing advanced airway management in the operating room. Her interactions with other CRNAs piqued her interest in pursuing certification in the field, which she said were a natural fit with her experience in pediatric critical care and transport.
A CRNA specialty, Ngin added, âallows a marriage of advanced critical care skills, the technical skills, advanced knowledge and skill sets required to take of care of patients in a variety of settings.â
After graduating from the nurse anesthesia program in 2010, Ngin began working at Hershey Medical Center, where she said she enjoys providing care to its diverse patient population.
ADDRESSING DIVERSITY CHALLENGES IN THE FIELD
Diversity in the nurse anesthetist field was challenging when she was enrolled in the anesthesia program at Villanova, Ngin said. At that time 85% of the students were white, 14% were Asian and there was no Black or Latino representation in the program. She compared those statistics to the current composition of CRNAs at Penn State Health, which is predominantly white, with 6% Asian and 8% Black CRNAs but no Latino representation.
Reflecting on the impact of diversity in her field, Ngin shared that she feels socially isolated from time to time and âinvisibleâ as a minority female. Because English is her second language, she experiences occasional microaggressions, she said.
While there is always room for improvement, âI think itâs been very positive that there is a systemwide push for inclusion and diversity at Penn State Health,â Ngin said. âBy doing this, we are meeting the need of our growing diverse patient population. I think we are moving in a good direction.â
One way Penn State Health is helping to meet the needs of its diverse patients is by being flexible with its medical processes, allowing families to be a part of their childâs care in the hospital. She also noted the health systemâs effort to address language barrier challenges through certified interpreters, appreciating different cultural beliefs and traditions and providing equitable care to all, no matter their socioeconomic background.
The best approach to addressing diversity issues, Ngin said, is by âleaders and educators continuing to promote a culture of acceptance, understanding and empathy toward diverse individuals, staff and patients.â
HOW TO BECOME A CRNA
After CRNAs earn a bachelorâs degree, become a registered nurse and gain experience in critical care, they must also earn either a doctorate in nursing practice or in nurse anesthesia practice and pass a national board certification exam before obtaining a license to practice in their state.
Administering anesthesia before, during and after surgery
Monitoring a patientâs response to anesthesia
Educate patients before and after they receive anesthesia
The advance practice providers at Penn State Health include certified registered nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists. Rigorously trained and credentialed, APPs work collaboratively with other health care providers to offer patients the highest level of care possible.This is the second feature in our APP Spotlight series. See the March APP Spotlight feature on nurse practitioners.
Dawn Bent, DNP, MSN, CRNA, didnât choose to be a nurse anesthetist as much as the profession chose her.
She was working as an ICU nurse for eight years when one of the anesthesiologists that she worked with told her: âI think you would be a great nurse anesthetist.â She didnât know what that was, and so he took her over to the operating room and let her see the profession in action. She still wasnât convinced, but she didnât forget. About a year or two later, she explored the profession again and decided to pursue the career path.
âI donât know if I ever told him, but to this day I thank Dr. Stayer for introducing me to the profession,â said Bent, who works at the University of Pennsylvania and St. Christopherâs Hospital for Children.
Dawn Bent, DNP, MSN, CRNA
Today, Bent is a program director, a role she takes seriously for a number of reasons.
âThere are so many challenges from an educational standpoint,â Bent says. âIt is even more challenging as a director of color. I say that because we have such a diverse cohort of students on every level that giving them exactly what they âneed and wantâ can pose difficulty.
"I want to be an example to every student regardless of their background, but I know that students of color look up to me in a very different way. I want to make sure that I am being a great example to all of my students.â
Some of the students featured during PANAâs Black History Month commemoration have named Bent as their mentor. And, Bent has her own list of mentors, too. âItâs almost like, 'where do I begin here,'â she says.
The late Art Zwerling touched her education and clinical life so deeply. He was one of the best in the OR and she wanted to follow his lead at all times. She also canât say enough for Maria Van Pelt (nee Magro), who is not only her friend but definitely always a text or phone call away. âShe is so graceful in her approach and has the best poker face out there.â Bent says she learned so much from her.
With all this support, Bentâs greatest achievement thus far is her program director role and working with her associate director. This was not a role that she sought out and she was not even sure she would do it any justice, but they put together not only a team between the two of them, but also with their students and program administrator.
âThe value of partnering with our students gives me such hope that in the future they will look at students as their partners so we can actively break the cycle of needing our students to be resilient,â Bent says. âAnesthesia education requires resiliency, but it also needs an environment of gentleness and tolerance to a degree. We were all students at one point.â
As a first generation Jamaican American, Bentâs family always stressed the importance of hard work, but she also recognizes that some from diverse backgrounds may work hard but are still not afforded opportunities. Her focus is continuing to be the face of hard work, mentorship and caring. There are a lot of talented Black Americans out there and some just need the platform in order to shine, she says.
As for whatâs next? Bent hopes to continue to make a difference in the lives of students and grow the profession. Being a program director of color, she understands that students from diverse backgrounds â all of them â need an advocate and a mentor.
âI have had students reach out to me that do not go to my program and ask me lots of questions and ask me to mentor them,â she says. âI canât help but say yes because there were people who invested in me when they really didnât have to. Giving back means a lot. Working in partnerships with others who have the same heart for students is what I am looking to do.â
