| May 28, 2004
Marquette General nurses complete anesthesia training
Bender and Durley begin work in the OR at MGH following 28 months
of rigorous training
By JIM LAJOIE
Marquette General Hospital
A
rigorous training program behind them, Marquette General Health
System registered nurses Kathy Bender
and Terry Durley have stepped into a challenging new opportunity
in the field of medicine.
Bender and Durley, longtime nurse managers on the cardiac and
ICU units, respectively, at Marquette General, are the first
MGHS employees to graduate from Oakland
University’s Beaumont Graduate Program of Nurse Anesthesia.
Both began their new duties as certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs)in
May.
Longtime Marquette General Health System
nurses Kathy Bender, third from left, and Terry Durley, fourth
from left, assemble
for a photo at MGHS to celebrate their completion of Oakland
University’s Beaumont Graduate Program of Nurse Anesthesia.
Bender and Durley began their new duties as certified registered
nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) in May. From left are Karen MacLachlan,
assistant administrator at MGHS who oversees the operating room;
Bud Hart, clinical coordinator of the anesthesia department at
Marquette General; Bender and Durley; and Karen Zaglaniczny,
adjunct assistant professor at the Oakland University School
of Nursing who helps direct the Beaumont graduate program. (MGH
photo)
“Having a critical care and cardiac nursing background, I was drawn to
the field of anesthesia,” said Bender, who has 15 years of floor and management
experience as a nurse at Marquette General. “I really wanted to get back
to the patient care side of nursing after years in management. This is one of
the best ways to combine intense patient care and critical care.”
Bender and Durley began the OU program in August 2001. Thanks to long-distance
learning technology in place at Marquette General, the two were able to receive
a good part of their education at MGHS’s “satellite” campus
without having to travel eight hours to Detroit.
“The OU Beaumont Nurse anesthesia program is a great program,” Bender
said. “It’s very intense and provides a combination of excellent
didactic instruction and clinical experiences.
“The program demands a great deal of time and energy. We were in class
or clinical five days a week. The time commitment was 80 hours-plus a week. It
was very demanding, but there are great rewards in being able to learn, understand
and provide high-quality care to the patients.”
Karen MacLachlan, an assistant administrator at MGHS who oversees the nursing
department, has known Bender and Durley for a number of years.
“Kathy and Terry have been hard-working, exemplory employees,” MacLachlan
said. “I have every reason to believe they will excel as anesthetists.
Their compassion and highly skilled care are trademarks of their personalities.
We’re pleased they’re part of our nursing team at Marquette General.”
Durley has been a part of critical care nursing for 20 years, and always expressed
an interest in becoming an anesthetist.
“The clinical requirements, class and study were intense,” Durley
said. “We were evaluated every day while at clinical. My husband and family
were extremely supportive, which is a key to its success. It truly took everyone’s
cooperation, collaboration and support to make this long-distance education program
successful, which ultimately, helped the CRNA shortage at MGH.”
Bender and Durley — proud co-recipients of the Agatha Hodgkins Outstanding
Nurse Anesthetist Award given by Beaumont — are equally grateful for
MGHS’s undivided support while they trained, and particularly applaud
the anesthesia department.
“Bud Hart (clinical coordinator of the anesthesia department) and the entire
anesthesia staff went ‘over the top’ to make our learning experience
the best it could be,” said Bender, who like Durley, earned a master’s
degree in public administration from Northern Michigan University. “They’re
a dedicated group of CRNAs who provided us with the best possible clinical experience.
There’s a sense of pride in the department that is impressive, and I’m
proud to become one of this group.”
“Flexibility was the key to this process,” added Bender, who came
to MGH in 1990. “The Beaumont staff, as well as the MGH staff, worked very
hard to make sure we had what we needed. I thank them for that.”
Beaumont’s nurse anesthesia program ranked sixth in the United States
in the 2004 edition of "U.S. News and World Report’s America’s
Best Graduate Schools." The 28-month program began in 1991 as a collaborative
initiative to address the nurse anesthesia shortage.
The program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia
Educational Programs and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Following the most recent accreditation visit in March 2002, the program
was granted
a full 10-year accreditation without recommendations, the maximum number
of years possible.
It was awarded a $300,000 grant to fund the Beaumont Hospital Nurse Anesthesia
Education Rural Initiative. The major objectives of the initiative are to
expand the supply of CRNAs in Oakland and rural counties in Michigan through
the incorporation
of distance-learning partnerships, online course instruction, simulator technology
and clinical affiliations.
For more information on the nurse anesthesia program, contact the School
of Nursing Academic Advising Office at 248-370-4253 or nrsinfo@oakland.edu.
|
