None of us will soon forget this year, but 2020 has been especially life-changing for Christen Roberts, CRNA. Over the past year she’s created Bambu bracelets to support healthcare workers across the country and became the first Mrs. Georgia American. Both platforms have given her an opportunity to increase awareness for the CRNA profession and she joins us to tell us about this amazing journey.
Click the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
What a year it’s been in 2020. As we finally bring it to a close, there are so many stories to tell about healthcare workers around the country. So many people have made a positive impact on millions of lives.
Today we want to introduce you to Christen Roberts, CRNA, who lives in Atlanta. She’s also dealt with the stress and anxiety from this year, but she’s also made it her mission to serve others in our industry by providing support and bringing awareness to everything we do on a daily basis.
Roberts is originally from Mississippi and is an Ole Miss Rebel through and through. Her wedding even took place in The Grove. But she’s also traveled, studied and worked in every region of the country so when the pandemic hit, she felt called to do something to support her peers.
What needed to be done and how that would actually happen was unknown and it caused a lot of anxiety. During this process, she came across bamboo through research and learned about its strengths and meaning. That led to the creation of a support bracelet called Bambu to help connect healthcare workers across the country. It stands for Bring Awareness to Medicine By Uniting. This symbol made everyone feel connected and CRNAs adopted it quickly. After the early success, she realized it could be used by all healthcare providers to create unity.
She also earned the first title as Mrs. Georgia American and she’ll soon compete for the national crown in early 2021. That platform is also giving her the chance to teach people about CRNAs, which is a title that is unrecognizable to many people.
So as you get started on the episode, keep an ear out for these topics:
- Georgia American pageant
- Jeremy and Sharon’s experience with pageants
- How she was called to serve during the pandemic
- Why she chose bamboo for the bracelets
- How Bambu is being used to connect healthcare workers
- Overcoming the financial challenges caused by the pandemic
- How she got ready for the pageant in two weeks
- The Georgia pageant didn’t know what a CRNA was
- The goal is to get 10,000 bracelets out
Check it out in the interview at the top of the page and use the timestamps to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
2:38 – Welcome in Christen Roberts, CRNA and Mrs. Georgia American
6:50 – Her background as a CRNA
9:12 – Anesthesia school
13:06 – Why this topic is important to her
15:00 – How the idea for bracelets came to be
18:40 – Financial challenges for 1099 employees
20:52 – Why she competed for Mrs. Georgia American
23:16 – How she’s using her platforms to bring awareness to the CRNA profession
25:09 – The upcoming national pageant
26:18 – Explaining what CRNAs do
28:53 – Their goals for the bracelets and how to get one
31:17 – How they socially distanced at the pageant
33:04 – Her favorite word
34:26 – Is your Christmas tree up?
35:33 – A final message from Christen
“This all started from the bottom of my heart in tears on the sofa when COVID first hit. I literally cried on a nightly basis and I felt called to go up to the northeast. I just wanted to serve.”
Christen Roberts, CRNA
