Look into the nursing specialty of the nurse anesthetist. I got the chance to talk with this month’s Featured “Get to Know Nurse” Don Wood. Don’s a certified registered nurse anesthetist at South Broward Endoscopy Center in Cooper City, Florida. I asked him about his start in the nursing profession and what drew him to oldest of nursing specialties.

Nursing Notes Live is an audio extension of the national award-winning monthly e-newsletter, Nursing Notes – which offers the latest industry news, trends and updates in nursing. You can subscribe to the e-newsletter at www.discovernursing.com.

Each month’s Nursing Notes issue will be accompanied by a couple of episodes of Nursing Notes Live, which will expand on the content and provide you greater insights into the topics presented in the e-newsletter.  You can listen to previous podcasts on  the Nursing Notes by Johnson & Johnson Facebook page or NursingNotesLive.com; or visit iTunes to subscribe to the podcast!

Hosted by Jamie Davis, RN, NREMTP, the Podmedic.

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Transcript of the Interview:

Jamie: Don, it’s great to have you here on Nursing Notes Live, why don’t you fill us in a little bit about your nursing background. What drew you to become a nurse?

Don: Well, my initial entry into nursing was based on some of the stuff I did when I was in high school as a volunteer fireman. At that point in time, up in Jacksonville, Florida, the fire rescue division had just become the fire rescue division, branching out from just fire suppression into having an ambulance service. As a volunteer fireman, when they expanded out into the county, I would have [enrolled] throughout the rescue units to go ahead and sort of get them directions. There was this new area and the west side of Duval County didn’t help out. Going to some of the classes they went to you could see how things were advancing. At that point in time, advanced first aid was the big thing. There were no EMTs who were out there or paramedics or anything like that. But seeing the advanced medical procedures that were taking place – airway management, IVs, that type of stuff – in my mind I was seeing the nurses would be a great addition to that type of unit they would have out there. So when I got out high school, I applied, and was accepted into the nursing program at Florida Junior College and entered that in 1971 in August. I graduated 1973 and continue to work in the emergency room and also in the intensive care unit. There were some hospitals in the Jacksonville area.

Jamie: You really got started in your healthcare career back in the days of Johnny and Roy from emergency – for those who are old enough to remember that.

Don: Very much so. That was back when they had the – it was called the LifePak/33. The “33” is because that was the designed weight for that particular portable defibrillator which is a very, very early model, they missed – it actually weighed 34 pounds. That was quite hard carrying around. But again it’s been interesting to see the development within emergency medicine, how that has gone along so far over the years. We have made a very, very big impact on healthcare these days.

Jamie: What drew you then to become a nurse anesthetist? Was it the advanced airway management? Or was it just – it is the oldest of nursing specialties so certainly it was around when you were getting started.

Don: Well,