Students

MCCG/Mercer Class of 2009

first row: Tasha Parker, Carmen Potts, Karen Durbin, Jessica Gilbert
second row: Chase Middleton, Amy Smith, Molly Andrews, Sheree Wolfenden - Program Director, Lauren Blond, Donna Sieber and missing Richard Maitz

MCG Class of 2009

front row, left to right: lara duncan, carol bouchard, courtney kennedy, ashley goolsby, carla duffie, leeann miller, jason faunce
backrow, left to right: elizabeth hansford, jada coleman, shannon broxton, ed gibson
missing from the picture: Angela Hudson, Connie Watkins, Taushera Westbrook, and Sonia Magambo.

2009 Georgia Association of Nursing Students Convention

SRNA's from MCG and Mercer attended: Leroy Groover, Carla Duffie, Lara Duncan, Katie Truitt, Sonia Magambo, Angela Hudson, Lauren Blond, and Kyle Jones.

15 Students attend the 2009 AANA Annual Meeting in San Diego

2009 GANA Outstanding Student Nurse Anesthetist of the Year Award

Taushera Westbrook of MCG is the 2009 recipient of the GANA Outstanding Student Nurse Anesthetist of the Year Award. She won for her excellence in academics, exemplary clinical practice, leadership capability in the GANA, potential for future contribution to the practice of nurse anesthesia, contribution to the professional body of knowledge and contribution to the GANA/GANAS as a student nurse anesthetist.

Since Taushera’s arrival as a student at MCG she has attended 6 GANA Board meetings, 2 GANA Fall meetings, and last year’s GANA Fall Retreat. On the national level she has attended the Mid-Year Assembly in Washington D.C. and the AANA Annual meeting in San Diego this past year. She has also participated in 2 Capitol Days where this year she was on the student committee that organized and made the GANA information folders for the legislators. She has served as Treasurer of the Georgia Association of Nurse Anesthesia Students and was the MCG student liaison to the GANA.

Ms. Westbrook accomplished all of this while raising 2 young girls, ages 4 and 6, with her husband serving in the US army on active duty in Korea. Finally, Taushera serves as a First Lieutenant in the US Army Reserves.

A Message to SRNAs
By: Maegan Brass, SRNA

Dear Students, First of all I want to wish each of you a Happy Holidays and congratulations to the graduating class of 2010! It is tough and stressful being a student and we have all worked hard for some time off to spend with our loved ones; enjoy it. Secondly, I want to talk to you about supporting the GANA Political Action Committee (PAC). Now before you flip the page, just hear me out. I know times are rough, especially for us students. Many of us are living on student loans and/or supporting our families on one salary, we have all learned how to do without. But supporting our PAC is something that we cannot do without! During these hard times donations are down and our PAC is struggling. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the PAC, let me tell you a little bit about it. The PAC works to raise money to donate to political candidates, and state legislators. The PAC donations may help to provide us access to our legislators to tell them about our profession. The money that is donated goes to help protect our right to practice and our scope of practice. So I am asking you, each SRNA in the state of Georgia, to please donate a one time gift of $25 to the GANA-PAC. (If you think about it, it’s really only the cost of one tank of gas or a couple of trips to Starbucks!). If each SRNA in the state of Georgia would donate $25, we the students could raise around $2,000!
To donate to the PAC, please visit the GANA website and click on GANA PAC (under General Topics).

Have a great holiday Season and don’t forget about National Nurse Anesthetists Week January 24-20!

The GANA Proudly Supports Georgia's Two Programs of Nurse Anesthesia

MUSM/MCG: The Master of Science in Anesthesia (MSA) degree program is an academic program clinically based at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in affiliation with Mercer University’s School of Medicine.....check it out at http://medicine.mercer.edu/msa_intro.

MCG: The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree program at the Medical College of Georgia offers an Anesthesia Clinical Practicum, a Nursing Anesthesia Specialty Practicum, and a Nursing Anesthesia Rural Practicum....check it out at http://www.mcg.edu/careers/nuranes.htm.

Medical College of Georgia professor with nurse anesthesia students

Medical College of Georgia nurse anesthesia students in the lab

GANAS 2009-2010 Board Members Announced

GANAS 2009-2010 Board Members Announced Before I let you in on our recent student involvement, I would like to introduce my self and the new GANA Student Board. My name is Maegan Brass from Newnan Georgia, I am currently a Junior student at the Medical College of Georgia and will be serving as the new student president for the 2009-2010 year. We have a wonderfully enthusiastic board this year that is excited about increasing student involvement for both MCG and Mercer. The New GANA Student Board is as follows: President: Maegan Brass (MCG), Presidential Assistant: Marni Daniel (MCG), Vice President: Kyle Jones (Mercer), Vice Presidential Assistant: Seth Claxton (Mercer), Secretary- Deanna Anselmo (MCG), Treasurer- Ashli Bartlett (MCG), Community Service Directors- Korie Agudelo (Mercer) & Harmon Weitzman (Mercer), and Director of Legislation- MaryEllen McMellon (MCG). This Fall is going to provide many opportunities for us students to get involved with GANA. The GANA Fall meeting will be held Oct 2-4 at Hilton Head, SC and is sure to be very fun and educational. Secondly, there will be a great opportunity October 15-18 in Athens, to reach out to nursing students from across the state of Georgia and tell them about our amazing profession. Thirdly, the GANA Retreat at beautiful Callaway Gardens will be on November 7th. Finally, we will round up the winter with National Nurse Anesthetists Week January 24-30. Don’t forget, GANA outings are a great way for us students to network with fellow student and practicing CRNAs, so come on out to the next event! Maegan Brass, GANAS President 2009-2010

Maegan Brass, GANAS President 2009-2010