Working as a nurse anesthetist can be a highly emotional and stressful position as you constantly deal with pressure to perform. That’s why there’s an emphasis being put on health and wellness by people like Jerry Hogan, DNSc, CRNA, ARNP-BC, who is the program director at Rush University. He joins us to talk about this topic and ways that CRNAs and SRNAs can cope with the stress and PTSD brought on from work.
Click the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
The attention to mental health has increased in recent years and the CRNA industry is a part of that trend. There’s an emphasis being placed on the wellness of students and employees and that’s a positive development for all CRNAs and SRNAs.
One person who has played an important role in this is Jerry Hogan, DNSc, CRNA, ARNP-BC. He’s the program director for nurse anesthesia at Rush University and received his Post-Master’s Certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nursing from SUNY Stony Brook. We asked him to join us for this episode of the Beyond the Mask Podcast to discuss this critical topic.
The main focus for our conversation is to understand how the identify these emotions and then how to process them. Everyone faces difficult situations professionally and personally and it’s crucial that we become healthy people that can control our thoughts and behaviors.
Of course we have to debate how much society and our upbringing plays into these issues. There’s no question that children are raised differently now than they were 50 years ago so what role does that have on our mental well-being?
With a background in the military that included multiple deployments, Hogan has seen these mental health issues up close and wanted to bring those experiences to nurse anesthetists. It’s an incredibly thoughtful discussion that everyone can benefit from at some level and we hope you agree.
Check out the audio player at the top of the page and use the timestamps to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
2:25 – Our guest today is Jerry Hogan, DNSc, CRNA, APRN-BC
3:37– Opening up with the key points on today’s topic of PTSD, Second Victim Syndrome, wellness, and stress.
5:55 – PTSD is divided into three clusters: re-experiencing, avoidance, and persistent arousal.
7:28 – How much of this is a societal issue?
10:09 – Anesthesia school is very trying and that’s where wellness starts.
13:13 – Jerry believes that healthy people are people that can control their thoughts and feelings and behaviors.
14:28 – We are the ones responsible for our own well-being.
15:43 – Wellness resources that are available for CRNAs.
17:32 – How do you practice mindfulness?
20:30 – What’s your response when people say we are babying our students?
22:35 – Discussion on cognitive reframing.
26:00 – What Jerry does when his stress level is elevated?
28:31 – Jerry recaps his career and experience in the military, which led him to this field.
34:00 – Final message from Jerry
“Every day is a victory. Every day is one step closer to the goal. You have to think of it from that perspective or you’re going to make yourself insane.”
-Jerry Hogan, DNSc, CRNA, APRN-BC
