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Gary Jenkins Receives AANA’s 16th Annual Ira P. Gunn Award for Outstanding Professional Advocacy

 Mr. Jenkins (center) is flanked by Wanda Wilson, PhD, CRNA, Chief Executive Officer, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists; and Juan Quintana, DNP, MHS, CRNA, FY2016 President, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

PARK RIDGE, ILLINOIS – Gary Jenkins, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) and co-owner of Excel Anesthesia in Beaver Dam, Ky., received the 2016 Ira P. Gunn Award for Outstanding Professional Advocacy during the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) Annual Congress held September 9-13, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
The Ira P. Gunn Award was established in 2000 to recognize the accomplishments of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists or non-CRNAs who are involved in overcoming legislative, legal and regulatory challenges to nurse anesthesia practice rights. The recipient of the award receives recognition by peers as a person who has made an important contribution to the advancement of nurse anesthesia practice rights.
Gary Jenkins, CRNA, is a lifelong, impassioned advocate for the nurse anesthesia profession. He not only has been politically active, working behind the scenes to help secure Kentucky’s opt-out of the federal physician supervision requirement in April 2012, but also has mentored future generations of nurse anesthetists in advocacy, business practices and the art and science of nurse anesthesia. His work as a CRNA in rural Kentucky has been exemplary.
“I have had a marvelous career as a CRNA,” said Jenkins. “I think our greatest achievement was when my business partner, Bob Wright, and I went under the radar for two years to start the process of opting out, then slowly added other members to assist in the process. Bob and I have an all CRNA group in Kentucky – at this point we are the largest all-CRNA group in the state. Within the next few months I shall retire. I have been a CRNA since January 1972.”
“Gary has been a strong political advocate for our profession,” said Terry Sweatt, MSN, CRNA, former president of the Kentucky Association of Nurse Anesthetists, in his nomination of Jenkins. “Gary has worked privately, holding fundraisers for state and federal officials; he has testified before our state legislature in various committees over the years; and most importantly, Gary and a few of his colleagues were instrumental in writing legislation that required anesthesiologist assistants to be certified as physician assistants. This visionary foresight has protected the practice of nurse anesthesia from anesthesiologist assistant encroachment. This law still stands today!”
The AANA congratulates Gary Jenkins, CRNA, on being selected the 2016 Ira P. Gunn Award recipient for Outstanding Professional Advocacy.

About the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
Founded in 1931 and located in Park Ridge, Ill., and Washington, D.C., the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) is the professional organization representing more than 50,000 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and student registered nurse anesthetists across the United States. As advanced practice registered nurses and anesthesia specialists, CRNAs administer approximately 43 million anesthetics to patients in the United States each year and are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural America. In some states, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia professionals in nearly 100 percent of rural hospitals. For more information, visit www.aana.com and www.future-of-anesthesia-care-today.com.

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