Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice • Spring 2022
The Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice program at Wayne State University never skipped a beat in meeting the challenges of the unprecedented times we’ve all experienced during the COVID pandemic. That’s been due to the hard work and dedication of the faculty who quickly transitioned to never-imagined ways of teaching anesthesia and rigorously preparing our students for clinical assignments. Thinking outside of the box and changing the landscape of nurse anesthesia education is exactly what our program faculty had to do! I am proud of the nurse anesthesia faculty (many of whom are alumni), and would like to take the opportunity to share some of their background and accomplishments: Jessica Phillips ’18 joined as full-time faculty and recently transitioned to assistant program director. Jessica is responsible for all the pharmacology courses, health assessment, and clinical application and review courses. She has worked very hard in redeveloping and implementing strategies for preparing students for the National Certification Examination. Joanne Rush ’94 joined as an instructional faculty member, taking over chemistry and physics. She then became part-time faculty, responsible for the coordination of three of the principle courses. In addition, Joanne teaches in those courses and in health policy. Her wide variety of clinical experiences lends depth in the principles of anesthesia courses. Georgia Young also joined as an instructional faculty member and transitioned to part-time faculty. Georgia coordinates and teaches the program’s physiology and pathophysiology courses. She is very creative, using her artistic abilities to create drawings and pathways for mastery of the physiology content. Chris Gill ’13 is the course coordinator for research and statistics, and leadership. He instructs in both courses, as well as in health policy. His expertise provides our students with real-word insight into the world of leadership and health care policy. Joe Kiesznowski ’16 joined us in 2021 and is the director of clinical education. Joe works tirelessly to place students in their clinical rotations and has taken on the role of expanding the program’s simulation curriculum, including incorporating crisis management scenarios. And finally! Valdor Haglund ’81 is the patriarch of the program. His wisdom and knowledge continues to be shared with all our WSU students, especially airway management, EKG and regional anesthesia. This is a team of passionate and dedicated individuals who devote countless hours to expanding and refining the curriculum in order to grow the highest quality nurse anesthetists. On a very sad note, Wayne State Nurse Anesthesia lost one of our beloved graduates, who helped teach our students both through lecturing and precepting since her own graduation. Jessica Pengyun Ouyang spent her whole life caring for other people, and her patients, students, friends and family all benefited from her sharp mind, her incredible work ethic and her boundless compassion. Upon graduating from our program in 2008, she worked at Detroit Receiving Hospital while pursuing further education in medicine. She earned her PhD in physiology from WSU in 2014 and taught here as an adjunct professor. She was a beloved member of the Wayne State family and will be greatly missed but never forgotten. Looking ahead, I would like to thank our alumni who work in the clinical area with our students. It is all of you who really make the program a success as you mentor our students in their clinical training. This could not be a program without YOU! And I’d like to offer a huge thank-you to our nurse anesthesia students. As we all know, the program is challenging. Now imagine going through it during a pandemic. Oh, yes, and let us not forget the added year of school with the transition to the doctoral level. Our students experienced “flexibility” beyond words as they adjusted to the new norms in the clinical area and with remote learning. The Class of 2022 is to be commended for their commitment and perseverance, as most of their education has been in the midst of the pandemic. They are truly Warrior Strong, and in just a few months will be the first graduating class of the Wayne State University Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice program. I hope you enjoy our newsletter, Mary Walczyk ’91
Nicholas Evon completes clinical rotation in Upper Peninsula “Like with many other rural hospitals, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in this community,” said Evon, pictured at center with his DNAP classmates. “This rotation provided me a robust amount of autonomy with regards to pre-operative screening, anesthetic plan development and execution, as well as post-operative management.” Read the full Q&A for details.
Donna Dzialo ’99 turns tossed-out drug vial caps into ArtPrize entryIn 2018, nurse anesthetist Donna Dzialo took a closer look at the colorful drug vial caps she’d been throwing away at work and began saving them instead. Dzialo, who earned a bachelor’s in 1996 from the WSU College of Nursing and then a master’s from our program in 1999, said, “The caps have a unique beauty that I appreciated as a nurse, a scientist and an artist.” A colleague at Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital suggested she create a mosaic version of a Monet painting, “but when COVID came and changed the world, it also changed my design plan.” Dzialo spent hours upon hours in her basement workspace, ultimately piecing together more than 6,000 caps of nearly 400 different colors, sizes, shapes and textures. Using IV tubing and needle covers along with the caps, she created “COVID Time CAPSule” and earned a coveted spot in the international art competition ArtPrize. See the gorgeous photos and read more about Dzialo's ArtPrize experience. Meet our program’s 2021 scholarship winners |
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