What’s up yall! This is Jon Lowrance and this is episode 111 – How to Prepare for Medical Mission Trips with Stacey Such, MSN, CRNA. (Stacey pronounces her last name, Such, like “Suke/Duke.”)

Before we get to this show, I’d like to give a quick shout out to the CRNAs, SRNAs & physician anesthesiologists who made it to Encore’s conference in Bar Harbor back in October as well as the Maine and Arizona State Association of Nurse Anesthesiology conferences, which were also in October. I had the privilege of speaking at all three of these conferences and really loved getting to see some of you out there. We had 2 SRNAs in Bar Harbor from different programs who came to that conference because they heard about it right here on the podcast, which is awesome! Somebody else in Bar Harbor let me know that after they listened to the episode on how ondansetron prevents spinal induced hypotension – which I recorded way back in 2021 with Jenny Li in episode 16, this guy went and did his own deep dive on the topic, ended up presenting on it at his group and they changed their whole practice as a group in managing c-sections. That’s amazing. I have so much respect for yall out there on the front lines, working to master your craft and make a difference for your patients. So, it’s always a blast to get to hang out with you in person at these conferences.

On that note, for 2025, I’ll be back with Encore Symposiums down in Hilton Head, South Carolina in May and back at the Cliff House in October. That’s May 19-22 at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and October 20-23 at the Cliff House Resort in Cape Neddick, Maine and those are with Encore Symposiums.

All right, in this episode, Stacey gives us a run down on how healthcare providers can prepare for short term medical mission work. Stacey has been a CRNA since 2012 when she completed her Master of Science at Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia. She worked as a CRNA for just over 10 years prior to returning to graduate school to complete her Doctorate in Nurse Anesthesia Practice at Virginia Commonwealth University. She framed her doctoral project around short term medical mission trips, their impact on global health and how healthcare providers can prepare to engage in this work.

In this show, you’ll hear what motivate Stacey to engage with this work following a deeply personal tragedy. You’ll hear stories about her time serving with Mercy Ships, Samaritan’s Purse and the World Health Organization. Stacey walks listeners through her 8-step guide for how to prepare for medical mission work. This is an excellent introduction to short term mission work and will hopefully inspire you to get involved in serving others in new ways and give you a guide for where to start.

Stacey included her 1-page guide to preparing for medical mission work in the show notes to this episode. She’s titled this Global Anesthesia Outreach: A Comprehensive guide To Preparing for Medical Mission Work.

If this kind of work interests you, be sure to check out episodes 61 & 62 of Anesthesia Guidebook. These are 2 episodes I did with Dr Mason McDowell on how to do anesthesia for global outreach. Mason talks about his full-time service as an anesthesia provider and educator in Béré, Chad and you can learn a ton through those two shows and the one that you’re about to check out.

And with that, let’s get to the show!