National Nurse Anesthetist WeekThis week is National Nurse Anesthetists Week. Held every January, the week acknowledges and honors the special advanced practice nurses known as Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs).
CRNAs practice in every setting where anesthesia is available and provide anesthesia in more than two-thirds of all rural hospitals. CRNAs are a sub-specialty of registered nurses and play a major role in patient safety during surgical procedures. CRNAs provide anesthetics to patients in collaboration with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists and other qualified healthcare professionals. CRNAs have provided anesthesia care for more than 125 years in the United States.
RetirementsKathy PadillaAfter 25 years of service, Kathy Padilla, accounting coordinator I in the grants management office, will be retiring from the Health Science Center at the end of January. With the exception of six months, Padilla has spent her 25 years of service in the grants management office. She plans to spend her retirement working part time in her church and spoiling her grand children. She also plans to do some family genealogy that may include travel to Ireland.
Nancy KobleNancy Koble, customer support supervisor in computing resources department, will retire Jan. 31 after 32 years with the Health Science Center.
“Nancy has been a superb employee of computing resources, and a sincere friend for almost 33 years,” said Dr. Frank Stafford, computing resources director. “In many ways, she has served as the departmental ‘mother,’ helping everyone, always looking on the bright side and being quite a prankster.”
Koble wants to spend more time with her granddaughter and enroll in Spanish classes. She also plans to return to playing piano and build her backyard garden into a woodland landscape.
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| (Far left) Donald J. Dudley, M.D., professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and board member of the Medical Alumni Association, presents Nabilla Porbandarwalla, MS-II, (third from left) with the Dean James J. Young Alumni Association Award. (L-R) Jan E. Patterson, M.D., professor in the department of medicine-infectious diseases; Anthony J. Infante, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean for research in the School of Medicine; and Ronald M. Stewart, M.D., associate professor in the department of surgery, congratulate Porbandarwalla on her award. Drs. Patterson and Stewart served as faculty mentors to Porbandarwalla. | |
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Successful medical studentNabilla Porbandarwalla, second-year medical student, has been successful in both national and local poster presentations.
Working with faculty mentors Daniel Dent, M.D., associate professor in the department of surgery, Ronald Stewart, M.D., associate professor in the department of surgery, and Jan E. Patterson, M.D., professor in the department of medicine-infectious diseases, Porbandarwalla produced a poster based on her research which was presented at this year’s Fourth Annual Medical Student Research Day in September. Among 34 other medical students, Porbandarwalla received the competition’s top prize, the Dean James J. Young Alumni Association Award of $1,000. She was also awarded a $1,500 summer research stipend from the Medical Dean’s Office in April 2004.
Her poster is titled “Community Onset Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococus Aureus (CO-MSRA) Infections Presenting to UHS Surgery, 1999-2003: Epidemiology and Management.”
The same poster was submitted to the American Medical Association-Medical Student Section during the section’s 2004 Interim Assembly Meeting held in December. During the Third Annual Research Poster Award Porbandarwalla received first place for her abstract.
Porbandarwalla was accepted to present the same poster at the 2nd Annual International Poster Session being held as part of the national convention of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations-USA (IFMSA-USA). At the IFMSA-USA meeting she was elected their National Vice President of the South (US).
