CHCS - Perspectives Summer/Fall 2017

20 Nova Southeastern University Anesthesiologist Assistant Tampa Professional Leadership Defines AA Students By Michael Provost, M.H.Sc. , CAA, Assistant Professor NSU’S ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANT (AA) Program prepares students not just for the physical and mental rigors of being an anesthesiologist assistant, it also trains them to become leaders in the AA field. This introduction of leadership starts at the top with Robert Wagner, M.M.Sc. , RRT, CAA, who serves as AA chair, and continues with Llalando Austin II, Ed.D., RRT, CAA, program director of the Tampa program. “NSU’s established curriculum is the difference for leadership development. Key courses within the curriculum provided the framework for the com- pletion of my doctorate and, subsequently, for my transition as a new director,” Austin said. “This leadership preparation has been modeled throughout the AA profession by a significant number of graduates of NSU’s AA programs, and the influence of NSU’s AA programs has positively changed the landscape of our profession.” Currently, there are five faculty members who are NSU AA alumni. They include both program directors of NSU AA programs, the president and president-elect of the Florida Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants, and the president- elect of the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants. Many NSU AA alumni also go on to become chief anesthetists of their anesthesia departments, as well as clinical coordina- tors for the students rotating in their hospitals. You will also find many NSU AA alumni all over the country who have become amazing clinical preceptors to AA students. At NSU’s Tampa AA Program, Nathan Weirch, M.H.Sc. , CAA, assistant professor, introduces students to leadership roles in his student lecture series class. In the class, students choose a disease process, perform the necessary research, prepare a 45-minute lecture, and create a poster presentation. Each student has an opportunity to show his or her work at the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistant national conference. This helps build the student’s communication skills, as well as his or her professionalism, on a leadership level. The last semester lab class, directed by Lori DeSorbo, M.M.Sc. , CAA, assistant professor, has a unique component that also pushes the students toward becoming leaders. A portion of the senior students’ grades consist of mentoring the new incoming class members by educating them on basic anesthesia topics in a one-on-one approach. They also have the option to lecture on some of these topics, as well as run the labs with supervision of the faculty educator. “Making the senior anesthesia students partially responsible for teaching junior anesthesia students some basic concepts prepares them for leading the education of future students they will encounter in their operating room,” DeSorbo said. “The feedback on this mentor program has been extremely positive. Some students did not realize how much they enjoyed teaching, and others realized that teaching basic concepts helped them in their own understanding of anesthesia.” The NSU AA Program is one of the few that has a well-devel- oped student government that consists of class president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and American Academy