National CRNA Week is a time to honor and recognize the teamwork, dedication, and exemplary care of our department’s more than 400 nurse anesthetists and reflect on their heroic work and unique expertise. CRNA Week 2023 took place January 23-29 and marked another year of celebration, appreciation, and community service. CRNAs at our various hospital sites chose to spend the week helping others, which has been a long-standing and inspiring tradition in our department. Here’s just some of our 2023 CRNA service projects:
- CRNAs at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh cooked and served dinner to 25 members of the community at the Neighborhood Resilience Project in the Hill District. The guests also received new winter hats, gloves, scarves, and socks donated by the Children’s CRNA group.
Left to right: UPMC Shadyside CRNAs Morgan Aretz (with Melissa and Duke Aretz), Tera Thomas, Sam Berry, Tammy Nuzzo, Alex Uram, and Patrick Burke UPMC Shadyside CRNAs organized efforts to host and serve dinner to more than 75 guests at Family House, an organization providing affordable and accessible housing for patients seeking medical treatment in Pittsburgh and their families. The CRNA group talked to families about their loved ones’ care and answered questions about CRNAs and their role in the world of surgery.
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Our CRNAs at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital enjoyed cake, bagels, and fruit from Magee CRNA Director Dani Meholic and Assistant Director Rachel Cellurale, donuts from the Magee Anesthesia Technicians, and a recognition lunch at Piada Italian Street Food. Magee CRNAs also collected and donated over 100 food items and participated in a Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank Market Volunteer Event for those in need. The volunteer efforts were organized by our Magee Anesthesia Cares (M.A.C.) committee, which is spearheaded by Serafina Bear and includes Laura Montag and Courtney Thomas.
Front row, left to right: Sofia Bear and Magee CRNAs Donna Koleck, Clarice Johns, Thomas Janczewski, and Serafina Bear. Back row, left to right: CRNAs Laura Montag, Valerie Pomerantz, Dani Meholic, and Connor McClellan, and Todd Bear Our CRNAs at UPMC Passavant held daily drawings for gifts cards, endless snacks, and capped the week off with a department-wide celebration.
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UPMC Presbyterian CRNAs celebrated with several events, including a donut day, a pizza day, and a luncheon. Thank you to Jen Coates, Julie Dixon-Ernst, Dale Fleck, Jen Fleegle-Vitsas, Allison Laessig, Derek Reckard, and Shannon and Dr. Brian Zuckerbraun who contributed food! CRNAs Michael Jordan and Marc Wicker coordinated an “Equipment Blitz” in-service event, where CRNAs Mary Beth Czerniak, Chad Artman, Dale Heron, John Jones, and Kyle Sheerin provided review education to the group on technical equipment like the defibrillator, pacemaker box, rapid infuser, etc.
UPMC Systems Analyst Patrick Matkozich, current lead anesthesia analyst with the Cerner Surginet application team and owner of J. A. Rutter Landscaping in Monroeville, posted signage in appreciation and celebration of CRNAs at his business.
Family House celebrated CRNA week and adopted January 23 in honor of Karen Florian, a CRNA who retired from UPMC Presbyterian just last year. For many years, Karen organized countless community service projects benefitting Family House and other organizations.
To all of our outstanding CRNAs – thank you for all that you do!
Department employees can view full size and additional photos from CRNA Week on our Sharepoint intranet site.
