Tag Archives: Master of Science in Anesthesia

Alumni join School of Medicine’s anesthesiologist assistant program faculty

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Three UMKC School of Medicine’s Master of Science in Anesthesia program alumni have been selected for faculty leadership roles. They all have served as preceptors for many years and bring diversity in their clinical and leadership experiences, expertise and advocacy for the anesthesiologist assistant (AA) profession.

Jonathan Chambers, a 2010 graduate, has been selected to serve as director of didactic education.

Chambers, an anesthesiologist assistant at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, has been a clinical instructor since 2011. He will be responsible for classroom teaching as well as coaching the School of Medicine’s basic medical science faculty in adapting courses to the anesthesiologist assistant profession. He also will serve as chair of the curriculum committee and ensure that the program’s curriculum meets the standards of accrediting and certifying bodies.

Adam Petersen, a 2012 graduate, is the new director of simulation education.

Petersen served as an anesthesiologist assistant at Ozark Anesthesia Associates in Springfield, then joined Saint Luke’s Hospital Kansas City in 2016. He will oversee the program’s simulation education, including “boot camp,” which involves intensive simulation training the first six weeks of the program. Students then receive a weekly curriculum of simulation and skills training throughout their first year. Petersen also will work to incorporate additional simulation training in the second year of the program.

Maggie Munn, who graduated in 2014, has been named director of clinical education.

Munn is an anesthesiologist assistant at Saint Luke’s Hospital Kansas City, and has served as a clinical instructor at the School of Medicine since 2015. As clinical coordinator, she will be responsible for scheduling all first-, second-, and third-year students at their clinical rotation sites, and will ensure students are on pace to meet their clinical requirements. She also will coach students, providing feedback and helping them set goals for each rotation. Munn is active in advocacy for the AA profession. She has served on leadership committees with the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants since 2016 and as president and vice president of the Missouri chapter.

Many School of Medicine AA graduates and faculty are involved nationally with leadership roles within the AA profession. Matthew Pinegar, M.D., program medical director, is a member of the board of directors for the Accreditation Review Committee for Anesthesiologist Assistant. Lance Carter, program director, is a member of the exam-item writing committee for the National Commission for Certification of Anesthesiologist Assistants.

The School of Medicine’s AA program started in 2008 and was the first AA program located west of the Mississippi. It is now one of 15 accredited AA educational programs throughout the country.

Established to help address the shortage of providers in anesthesia care, the program accepts up to 16 new students each year for admission and boasts a 100% certification exam pass rate and employment rate for its graduates. While certified anesthesiologist assistants can practice in 19 states and in Washington, D.C., the majority of UMKC graduates are employed in Missouri, where they deliver quality anesthesia care to patients.

Prerequisites for the program are a bachelor’s degree with pre-medical sciences classes and passage of the Medical College Admission Test or Graduate Record Examination. The 27-month program begins each January, and students receive more than 2,000 hours of hands-on clinical training with patients. A highlight of the UMKC AA program is the intense skills and simulation instruction in the clinical training facility, as well as experience in the operating room that begins in the first semester.

 

MSA program students gather national honors

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Students from the School of Medicine's Master of Science in Anethesia program gathered for a group photo at the 2015 American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants conference in Orlando, Florida.
Students from the School of Medicine’s Master of Science in Anethesia program gathered for a group photo at the 2015 American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants conference in Orlando, Florida.

Students from the School of Medicine’s Master of Sciences in Anesthesia program brought home two major awards from the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants annual conference, April 10-14 in Orlando, Florida.

The program, for the second year in a row, brought home the organization’s  AAAA Cup, an award given to one program based on its outstanding philanthropy, leadership, involvement, professionalism and participation in the annual Jeopardy competition.

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Michael Roth, Kaitlin Hill and Stephanie Woodke display the championship trophy from this year’s AAAA Jeopardy Competition.

School of Medicine students also came home as Anesthesiologist Assistants student Jeopardy champions for the second year in a row. The competition pits first-year students from programs across the country. The unique twist for UMKC students, said Melanie Guthrie, M.S.A., AA-C, director of the MSA program, is that while most programs begin their academic year in August, the School of Medicine program beings in January and therefore, first-year students at the School of Medicine have been in classes for just six weeks while most first-year students in other programs have been in classes for six to nine months.

A number of students were also recognized for their service on various organization committees. Juveria Nayeem, third-year student, was honored as the outgoing co-chairperson of the student component society. The organization also recognized Joseph Borup, first-year student, as one of the new incoming co-chairs.

“I am very proud of our students,” Guthrie said. “It is wonderful to go to these meetings and to hear from so many people how great our students are.”

 

School’s anesthesiologist assistants program wins inaugural AAAA Cup

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MSA students spent an evening at the Harvesters food network last fall preparing food and drink packages for local food banks. Pictured are (front) Juveria Nyeem, Abby Gezella, Jenna Gaughan, Kyle Harlan; (back) Colin Warnock, Amanda Sharp, Courtney Haanpaa, TJ McManus, Landon Streed, and Tyler Werth.
MSA students spent an evening at the Harvesters food network last fall preparing food and drink packages for local food banks. Pictured are (front) Juveria Nyeem, Abby Gezella, Jenna Gaughan, Kyle Harlan; (back) Colin Warnock, Amanda Sharp, Courtney Haanpaa, TJ McManus, Landon Streed, and Tyler Werth.

Zombies walked the grounds of a local theme park last fall to raise money for charity. The same folks spent another evening working at a community food network. Those efforts and more earned students from the School of Medicine’s Anesthesiologist Assistants program the first American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAAA) Cup during the organization’s annual meeting April 12-15 at Hilton Head, S.C.

The AAAA Cup was the first year of a competition that encourages students to become involved in the AAAA.

Activities that are part of the competition include donations to the organization’s legislative fund, class attendance at the annual AAAA conference, the AAAA Jeopardy competition and fundraising for the Lifebox Foundation, a global health charity that uses technology and training to make surgery safer in low-resource countries across Africa, Asia, South America and the Western Pacific.

Students in anesthesiologist assistants programs across the country participate in the friendly competition as a means of supporting the AA profession.

Inaugural class of UMKC School of Medicine Physician Assistants begins courses

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Members of the School of Medicine's inaugural class of the Master of Medical Science - Physician Assistant program gather for a group photograph following orientation on Jan. 10.
Members of the School of Medicine’s inaugural class of the Master of Medical Science – Physician Assistant program gather for a group photograph following orientation on Jan. 10.

A group of 14 students are part of the inaugural class of the School of Medicine’s new Master of Medical Science-Physician Assistant program that kicked off its first classroom activities on Tuesday, Jan 21, with lectures in anatomy and ethics.

A joint student orientation with this year’s incoming class of Master of Science in Anesthesia students on Jan. 10 covered information from the Office of Student Affairs covering financial aid and other resources. Students later broke out into individual meetings covering program specific information.

School of Medicine Dean Betty Drees, M.D., addressed the two classes during the orientation session.

“As time goes on, I think it’s critical for us to have these programs in the medical school because with the changes in the health care delivery system, more and more health care is going to be done in teams, not by individuals. And making sure that we have education programs here for the whole team to meet the workforce needs in our own state is really critically important. I think you will see in your careers that what you do will become increasingly in demand as we go to a more team-based approach to health care.”

The Physician Assistant program received provisional accreditation status from the Accreditation Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant in September. Provisional status indicates that the plans and resource allocation for the proposed program appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA standards if fully implemented as planned. Provisional accreditation does not ensure subsequent accreditation status and is limited to no more than five years from matriculation of the first class.

Kathie Ervie, M.P.A.S., P.A.-C., serves as program director and Beverly Graves, M.D., ’83, is the program’s medical director. Two additional faculty members joined the program in November. Holli Paulk, M.B.A., M.P.A.S., assistant teaching professor, serves as the program’s clinical coordinator and is involved in curriculum development, lectures and clinical instruction. Brad Dirks, M.Ed., P.A.-C., also an assistant teaching professor, is involved in curriculum development and didactic instruction.

The School received nearly 100 applications to be part of its first MMS-PA class and about 40 were interviewed. At least 80 percent of the class each year is expected to come from the instate application pool. The program is looking to accept up to 20 students for its second class in 2015, Ervie said.

Class lectures for the PA program will begin on Jan. 21, primarily in a third-floor classroom of the medical school and students will begin early clinical rotations and patient interactions shortly thereafter at Truman Medical Center, Saint Luke’s Hospital, the Kansas City Health Department and other area clinics.

The Anesthesiologist Assistant program began in 2008 with an inaugural class of four students. The program has since graduated 24 Anesthesiologist Assistants and will celebrate its fifth graduating class this May. It accepted 13 students into the program this year.

Dr. Banderas appointed associate dean for Graduate Studies and Allied Health

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Julie Banderas, Pharn.D.

The School of Medicine Dean’s Office has announced the appointment of Julie Banderas, Pharm.D., as assistant dean for Graduate Studies and Allied Health.

A tenured professor in the department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Banderas has served as assistant dean for Graduate Studies since 2010. She has been actively involved in developing the School’s initial graduate programs and the corresponding operating procedures and administrative structures.

A member of the UMKC Graduate Council and Graduate Officers Committee, Banderas assumes the administrative duties as assistant dean of Allied Health Programs, which include the Master of Science in Anesthesia Program and the Master of Medical Science Physician Assistant Program that was recently approved the University of Missouri Board of Curators in April.

Banderas has taught clinical pharmacology at the School of Medicine for 18 years and also teaches courses in Responsible Conduct of Research for the School of Graduate Studies.