Episodes

Chuck Biddle PhD, CRNA is a Professor Emeritus of anesthesiology at Virginia Commonwealth University and served as the editor in chief of the AANA Journal for 35 years. His anesthesia education & master’s degree are from Old Dominion University and he completed his PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Missouri. Chuck is one of my favorite people in the world of anesthesiology. He’s one of those folks who have put the time in over decades to develop a true, deep mastery of their profession w...

What’s up folks! This is Jon Lowrance with Anesthesia Guidebook and this is episode 103… a deep dive on dexmedetomidine with Eliana Zimmerman. This episode is coming out on January 21, 2024. Before we get to the show I want to remind folks that I’ll be speaking in person at the Encore Symposiums’ Autumn in Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park conference running October 14-17 of this year. If you have never been to Maine, this is a great excuse to make it up here. And even if you have been or if yo...

Brad & Madisson Marcum join me to talk about the dynamics of being married and going to anesthesia school together. They met in nursing school, had divergent paths professionally for a bit, with Brad starting nurse practitioner school and Madisson considering anesthesia school. They ended up sharing the same goal of becoming CRNAs and we talk through their approach to applying together, getting into the University of Evansville together and working through the program alongside one another. In ...

This is an incredibly special podcast that I’m thrilled to pull forward from our old show, From the Head of the Bed, to Anesthesia Guidebook. I love that this episode is number 101 because EKG lead selection should be 101-level knowledge for anesthesia providers, yet so many folks have not mastered this fundamental knowledge as part of their practice. I hope you get as much from this as I have over the years. Dr Mark Kossick was a full professor of anesthesia at Western Carolina University whe...

Have you noticed how stoked podcasters get about their one hundredth episodes? It’s kind of a thing. If you want to hear interesting shows – check out the hundredth episodes. Or 200th. Or 1000th. Podcasters usually get super stoked about hitting triple digits with their shows and often set up the number 100 episode as some sort of tribute to themselves by taking a look back over their favorite episodes. Don’t get me wrong… I’m pumped about number 100. But this isn’t going to be a look back a...

Cassie Capps, BSN, SRNA joins me to talk about the effects of didactic formatting in anesthesia training on resident wellbeing including stress, anxiety, confidence and academic performance. Her specific focus is on the mix of online versus in-person course work for nurse anesthesia trainees. Cassie overviews what the literature says about this topic and is looking for YOU to join her efforts by completing a very quick survey about your experience at the end of this podcast. The survey HAS CLO...

Elisabeth Stewart, MSN, MSNA, CRNA focused her Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia project on the pharmacology of Toradol (ketorolac) and she’s here today to tell us all about it. Elisabeth hails from Wisconsin, holds a BS in Mathematics with a pre-med concentration and engaged in HeLa cell cancer research prior to going to nursing school. She received a Master of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where she worked in a transplant ICU while completing her Cl...

What up folks! This is another short podcast on the idea that safety is a capacity, not an outcome. This idea comes out of Todd Conklin & Sidney Dekker’s work on organizational safety where they discuss two ways of looking at safety: The Safety 1 Perspective or the old way of thinking is that safety is about minimizing errors. It’s about identifying risks, including human behaviors, and implementing steps to prevent errors from happening. Success is often measured in low to zero error rates and...

What up yall this is Jon Lowrance and this is episode 96 – virtual reality in anesthesia education: SIMVANA with Peter Stallo. This show is coming out in early August of 2023. First up: I want to give a quick heads up that our team from Maine Medical Center where I currently serve as chief CRNA will be at the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology Annual Congress in a couple of weeks in Seattle. If you’re headed to AANA’s Annual Congress this year, be sure to swing by the exhibit hall an...

Quick 5-Question Post Podcast Survey HERE Today I’m joined by John Fratianni who created the content for this episode as part of his Doctorate in Nurse Anesthesia Practice at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. John earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and completed his critical care nursing training with the United States Air Force where he served 7 ye...

All right what’s up folks this is Jon Lowrance and it’s May 16, 2023. This is episode 94 – and I’m calling it “shorts: cue ball.” And I don’t mean shorts like the things you wear but shorts like, this will be brief and there will be more episodes like this to come… you know, shorts. But first… updates! Maine Medical Center will the at the AANA Annual Congress in Seattle this August. We’ll have a table in the exhibition hall and a couple of our CRNAs will be there to tell yall about our sweet...

In this episode, I speak with Dr April Bourgoin, DNAP, CRNA about operating room fires – how they can start and how we can respond to them as anesthesia providers. This show was originally released in 4 years ago in February of 2019 on the podcast From the Head of the Bed and was recorded with a table top microphone so the audio is a little suboptimal, but I’m sure you’ll still find this to be a very hot topic that will smolder in your memory for years to come after they key details become seare...

If you get this post by email: THANK YOU! You’re in a select group of supporters of the show who have followed the posts on the website and I can’t thank you enough. Your interest, feedback and willingness to share these episodes with your friends & colleagues is much appreciated. Shoot me a reply, social media message or email any time… I’d love to hear from you and again, thank you for your support! – Jon My guest today is Dr Brian McGrory, MD. His is an orthopedic joint replacement surgeon a...

What up yall. This is Jon Lowrance. I’m still here. We’re still here. This is the first episode of 2023 and the first episode on Anesthesia Guidebook since October – October! I’m so glad to get back to the podcast and bring you this update. This is a re-cap of the last few months of my world. It’s also a reminder of what Anesthesia Guidebook is about and a look forward into 2023. I’ve got some very exiting news to share… my wife is pregnant with our second baby boy, due in March, and I’ve also...

Climate crisis is a growing global health problem, one which the field of anesthesia contributes to with its use of volatile anesthetic gases. This podcast is part of the doctoral project of Jacob Bonnema and it aims to increase knowledge and awareness of the environmental effects of volatile gases, particularly desflurane, to empower providers to plan environmentally-conscious anesthetics. As of October 2022, Jacob Bonnema, BSN, RN, CCRN is a senior nurse anesthesia resident at NorthShore Univ...

What’s up y’all this is Jon Lowrance and this is episode 89 – Distraction in the OR with Heather Turcotte, DO. Y’all, I am so stoked to bring you this conversation… I caught up with Dr Turcotte earlier this summer as she was finishing her residency in anesthesia and I’m pumped to finally get this out to you in early September of 2022. This topic was the focus of her residency project and senior grand rounds presentation and it definitely created a stir in our group as CRNAs, physicians, resident...

This is episode 88 and it’s part 3 off a three-part series with Dustin Degman, a CRNA formerly with the United States Army. In the first episode, we discussed Dustin’s experience in Afghanistan serving at a forward operating base in Paktika Province in 2012. We talk about what makes up forward surgical teams and the role of CRNAs as the sole anesthesia provider on these teams. In part two, we discussed the principles of damage control resuscitation. And in this final episode of the series, we...

What’s up yall this is Jon Lowrance with Anesthesia Guidebook. I am so pumped to bring you this series of 3 episodes on Combat Trauma Anesthesia! This is episode 87 and it’s part 2 off a three-part series with Dustin Degman, a CRNA formerly with the United States Army. In the first episode, we discussed Dustin’s experience in Afghanistan serving at a forward operating base in Paktika Province in 2012 to 2013. We talk about what makes up forward surgical teams and the role of CRNAs as the sole ...

What’s up yall this is Jon Lowrance with Anesthesia Guidebook. I am so pumped to bring you this next series of 3 episodes! This is episode 86 and it kicks off a three-part series with Dustin Degman, a CRNA formerly with the United States Army on combat trauma anesthesia. In this first episode, we discuss Dustin’s experience in Afghanistan serving at a forward operating base in Paktika Province in 2012 to 2013. We talk about what makes up forward surgical teams and the role of CRNAs as the sole...

Jason McLott, MSN, CRNA developed a mix of medications for doing opioid-free anesthesia that came to be know as the McLott Mix. It’s a combination of dexmedetomidine, lidocaine, ketamine and magnesium. Jason is clear that the McLott Mix helps achieve opioid-free anesthesia, not opioid-free analgesia, recognizing the role of opiates, if needed, in post-operative analgesia plans. Jason completed his anesthesia training at Oakland University’s Beaumont Nurse Anesthesia program and works in a CRNA...

Jason McLott, MSN, CRNA developed a mix of medications for doing opioid-free anesthesia that came to be know as the McLott Mix. It’s a combination of dexmedetomidine, lidocaine, ketamine and magnesium. In this episode, Mr McLott himself unpacks the story of the mix’s development, efficacy and principles for opioid-free anesthesia. He’s clear that this mix helps achieve opioid-free anesthesia, not opioid-free analgesia, recognizing the role of opiates, if needed, in post-operative analgesia plans...

“Positive deviance is really about… taking those things that people are doing right and sharing them with everyone so that everyone is doing things to improve our patients’ care, our patients’ outcomes.” Cherie Burke, DNP, CRNA Dr Cherie Burke joins me to unpack how positive deviance can be a catalyst for change in healthcare. Positive deviance is all about looking for what’s going right and transferring those lessons to other opportunities, processes & providers to improve performance. Aggres...

Randy Moore, DNP, MBA, CRNA and Desirée Chappell, MSNA, CRNA join me to talk about change management in healthcare. They are both on the leadership team with NorthStar Anesthesia, which provides perioperative services at over 200 facilities across 20 states. This conversation focuses on how leaders can navigate change, develop culture and build successful anesthesia practices. We discuss the challenges facing anesthesia providers right now after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic and what market ...

I caught up with Tracy Young, CRNA, MBA & CEO of YPS Anesthesia Services in Houston back in November 2019 to talk about the business of anesthesia. Tracy is one of the most sought-after experts on the business of anesthesia not just at CRNA conferences but throughout the healthcare management & business industry. In this episode we discuss a broad range of topics including anesthesia billing & staffing models, trends in reimbursement, differences between W2 & 1099 work, advice for establishing...