Twenty-One Students Complete Master’s-Level Nurse Anesthesia Program

December 10, 2018 – A special ceremony celebrating 21 students who completed the Nurse Anesthesia Program also marked two other significant milestones: the retirement of the program’s founding director Donna Jasinski, PhD, CRNA, and the last graduating class of the master’s-level program, which now operates at the doctoral level.

The Nurse Anesthesia Program Class of 2018 poses outside of Healy Hall.

Jasinski, who founded the nationally ranked and award-winning program in 1994 and will be retiring in February, welcomed the audience to the event, which was held December 7 in Copley Formal Lounge.

About the program’s rigor, Jasinski told the students and their families and friends that the bar is “very, very high” and that the graduating class members “not only met the bar, they surpassed it – each and every one of them.”

‘Make Them Our Family’

Hope Galvin (G’18), RN, who is the class representative, recounted memories from the 28-month program in a speech during the ceremony. She described how she and her classmates became a family, sharing joyous moments and supporting each other in challenging ones.

“We, as nurse anesthetists, are in a unique position,” Galvin said. “We truly impact people’s lives on a daily basis. We see our patients during some of the most stressful, vulnerable times. . . . Let’s, just for the day or the few hours we spend with our patients, make them our family. We hold an incredible responsibility and privilege in this role, and we should never take that lightly. But truthfully, I know we never will.”

Said Galvin: “And when we are having a hard day, remember your Georgetown family.”

Honoring a Leader

Patricia Cloonan, PhD, RN, dean of the School of Nursing & Health Studies, and Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, CRNA, LAc, FAAN, director of the Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice Program, honored Jasinski at the event.

Cloonan highlighted Jasinski’s “legacy at this university” and the way she created a program that brings this campus great pride. Eshkevari, who has worked with Jasinski since 1997, offered heartfelt remarks about her “dear friend and colleague.”

“The nurse anesthesia field has been greatly impacted by your contributions,” Eshkevari said, noting the two had worked together to educate more than 650 CRNAs and nearly 200 CRNAs for practice in the United States Navy. “It has been an honor and a privilege, and I do hope to carry forward the high standards and values that you have set for the Nurse Anesthesia Program.”

Jasinski described how she enjoyed nurse anesthesia practice and “always, always, always wanted to be a teacher.” Because of that, she said she founded the program and it grew through teamwork. Twenty-four years later, looking back, she told the audience what she has always loved most about her time at Georgetown are the students.

Recognitions

Student winners of the research award pose with their faculty at the Nurse Anesthesia Program Completion Ceremony.

Students were recognized with an award for their research project.

All students received a Georgetown University pin, and some were inducted into the Tau Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, which is nursing’s international honor society.

Also at the ceremony, four students – Molly Martin (G’18), RN; Michelle Moebus (G’18), RN; Charity Jarnagin (G’18), RN; and Kelly True (G’18), RN – were recognized with a research award for their scholarly project, “Transition of Care from the Operating Room to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit: An Exploration of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists’ Satisfaction with Reporting Methods.”