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February
24,
2003
La
Salle's Gina Lederhilger Selected as Student Trustee
of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists
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Gina
Lederhilger, a nurse anesthesia student at the Frank J. Tornetta
School of Anesthesia at Montgomery Hospital at Montgomery Hospital,
which is affiliated with La Salle University's School of Nursing,
has been elected to serve as the student trustee to the Board
of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA).
The Frank J. Tornetta School of Anesthesia, which is affiliated
with La Salle University's School of Nursing, has been training
nurses to become vigilant anesthetists for over 50 years.
As the only student trustee for the state of Pennsylvania, Lederhilger
will attend the |
board's
eight meetings a year, where she hopes to be a voice for her fellow
student anesthetists. "My goal is to provide information and
assistance to all my fellow peers," said Lederhilger. "I
will maintain this communication through my words in the student
column in TIDINGS (the organization's publication) and also by personal
contact with the student members of PANA."
Lederhilger,
27, applied for the position and was selected by the President of
the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists. She will serve
one year in the capacity as a non-voting board member, attend all
board meetings and serve on the Student Activities Committee and
additional committees as requested by the President of PANA. "Gina
is an exemplary student with outstanding grades," states Michael
Kost, the Program Director for the anesthesia school.
She
has primarily worked as a Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and Intensive
Care Unit Nurse in Northern New Jersey since 1996. She is currently
pursuing her Master of Science degree in Nurse Anesthesia at La
Salle University. Since 2001 she has been a member of Sigma Theta
Tau International, an International Honor Society of Nursing.
To
complete the program in nurse anesthesia, students must first be
a licensed registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing,
be in good academic standing and have worked at least one year of
critical care nursing. They must study for 27 months and complete
48 graduate credits at La Salle. After completing these studies,
Lederhilger will take the national certification examination provided
by the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists. When she
finishes her coursework, she will receive a Master of Science in
Nursing degree from La Salle University through its partnership
with the Frank J. Tornetta School of Anesthesia at Montgomery Hospital.
A native
of New York, Lederhilger received her Associate in Applied Science
in Nursing at Felician College in New Jersey in 1996 and her Bachelor
of Science in Nursing at Dominican College of Blauvelt in Orangeburg,
NY in 1999. She began to pursue her master's degree at La Salle
in September 2000.
She
became interested in becoming a nurse at the early age of nine when
she assisted her father in bandaging an injury he had received while
working construction. She also knew at the age of fifteen when she
had her tonsils removed that she wanted to be a nurse anesthetist.
"Since those two specific moments in my life, I knew exactly
what I wanted to do. I know that caring for other people has always
carried a special sense of satisfaction in my life," she said.
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