PANA Student Voice

Malinda Miller SRNA, PANA Student Representative


Welcome to the NEW PANA Student Representative Malinda Miller!


Greetings to my fellow SRNAs and CRNAs in Pennsylvania. It is my pleasure to serve as the 2011-2012 PANA Student Representative. I look forward to the upcoming year and getting to know many of you. I would like to start by introducing myself. My name is Malinda Miller and I am a second year SRNA at the University of Pittsburgh. I am not originally from Pennsylvania, but I have come to call this state my home. My journey to becoming a SRNA started with a random shadow day in the operating room. I was supposed to be observing the surgery, but I couldn’t help but notice the CRNA. That CRNA made a difference in my life because she took the time to answer my questions and educate me about CRNAs. So for me there is one particular topic that I am passionate about: education. Education is a very diverse topic that comes in many forms. It can be a classroom based lecture or a lesson that one of our mentors gives us during a case. Even though many of us are not official educators and some of us are students we can still educate others. It is important to educate our friends, families, acquaintances and fellow Registered Nurses about CRNAs. We put so much of ourselves into this profession because we believe in this field of nursing. This year I plan on incorporating education about our profession into some of the activities. However, this year is not just about me and topics that are important to me, it is about you. I want to know about the topics that interest you because I represent you. What are you passionate about that you want addressed here in this column? Send me your ideas or thoughts. I can be reached at pana.studentrep@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.


Pictures from University of Scranton

The students and faculty of Wyoming Valley Health Care System/University of Scranton School of Nurse Anesthesia collected money for a family that was affected by the September flooding which included $100.00 for Thanksgiving and $100.00 Christmas. In addition, the school collected $100.00 and donated it to Valley Santa Fund Inc., which is a program for needy area children.
1st photo from left to right: Stephanie Rogers, Thomas Romero, Timothy Wirtz, Angel Banovic, Susan Elczyna, CRNA, PhD(c), Clinical Director, Edith Dinga and second row: Joyce Dougherty
2nd photo from left to right: Dr. Ann Culp, Assistant Program Administrator, Mary Jennings, Coordinator Student Affairs, Mayra Serrano-Glick, Jill Lear Administrative Research Assistant, Dr. Caroline Raskiewicz, Program Administrator, Ann Marie Mullen and second row: Lucian Dumitru
3rd photo from left to right: Dominick Cosmello, Dr. Caroline Raskiewicz, Program Administrator and Ann Marie Mullen.



Substance Abuse and Anesthesia

Our RISK project, an intercollegiate effort to increase the awareness of substance abuse among anesthesia providers, is currently being developed via conference calls and an online workgroup through bulletin boards and file sharing. It will be presented for the first time on the Saturday of Spring Symposium. This project is an enormous leap in intercollegiate SRNA collaboration. I hope its success will promote intercollegiate interface from here forward. SRNAs collaborating on this project have the distinct privilege of being mentored through its development by Art Zwerling, DNP, CRNA, DAAPM, Senior Advisor, AANA Peer Assistance Program.

Michael Lord, PANA SRNA Representative 2009-2010