BBGH’s newest Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist has interesting history
Rita Vaughn, CRNA
Rita Vaughn, Box Butte General Hospital’s (BBGH) newly hired full time Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), not only has a long history of practice in the profession (31 years), but she was introduced to it by a Great Aunt who was an early practitioner of nurse anesthesia, "... when it was more art and less science," Ms. Vaughn said.
“My Great Aunt Ann was an anesthetist who worked with the renowned heart surgeon Dr. Michael E. DeBakey in Houston,” Ms. Vaughn recounted. Dr. DeBakey’s many accomplishments included the development of the roller pump that provided continuous flow of blood during operations, making open-heart surgery possible; pioneering the development of an artificial heart, being the first to use an external heart pump successfully on a patient; and pioneering the use of Dacron grafts to replace or repair blood vessels. He received the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush in 2008.
“Needless to say, Great Aunt Ann was a major influence on my life,” she continued. “ I met her at a family reunion was when I was 12 and we struck up a correspondence. Here was this single professional woman, the age of my grandfather, whose father had hired her out as a young scullery maid while her brothers were learning to farm and pursuing further education. One of her brothers became a PhD chemist for Armour. Another eventually moved to San Diego and taught mathematics. I can still hear her indignant voice when she said the words, 'scullery maid.' Ann struck out on her own as a young woman, became a nurse, and eventually found herself doing anesthesia with Dr. DeBakey. Of course, I, hearing this at age 12 and living on a farm in North Dakota (400 miles almost straight north of Alliance) had no idea who this Dr. DeBakey of her stories was. I learned that after I entered anesthesia school when I heard surgeons asking for 'The DeBakey,' a now-common surgical instrument."
Ms. Vaughn attended Minot State College in North Dakota, receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing in 1979. She finds it interesting that Chadron State College was one of the schools which competed against Minot in sports at the time. After college, she married and moved with her husband Michael to Iowa City, where he received his Master's of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Fiction from the University of Iowa. While working at the University of Iowa Hospital, she was again encouraged to specialize in anesthesia, this time by her coworkers. The Vaughns returned to North Dakota where she earned her anesthesia certification at the Central North Dakota School of Anesthesia. Most of her career, from 1984 to 2007, was spent at St. Joseph's/Trinity Medical Center in Minot, ND. In 2007 she and her husband moved to Wahpeton, ND, where she joined Red River Anesthesia, becoming a part owner of the corporation in 2009, providing care in several area hospitals and clinics, and remaining there until this summer. She joined the CRNA staff at BBGH in July of 2015.
CRNAs are certified nationally and licensed by individual states to deliver comprehensive anesthesia care, including general, epidural, spinal, sedation and local anesthetics. CRNAs are anesthesia professionals who safely administer approximately 40 million anesthetics to patients each year in the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) 2014 Practice Profile Survey.
“I love what I do,” Ms. Vaughn said. “I can’t think of another career where it’s the ultimate in social interaction combined with science. We have so much human interaction, as well as scientific practice. Back in my great aunt’s day, anesthesia was more art than science. She could tell what adjustments she needed to make just by how the patient was breathing for example. She would know if a patient had to go on a respirator just by the pattern of the patient’s respiration. We still pay attention to what’s going on with the patient, but we have all these monitors we pay attention to. It’s like the control system of an airplane. As a matter of fact what we do is a lot like what a pilot does. It’s very intense during takeoff and landing. We’re working very hard before the surgeon gets there and very hard when the surgeon leaves. While the surgeon is working, the patient really isn’t on autopilot, but if what we’ve done has been done correctly, we’ll have a smooth flight during the surgery. But, as is also true when flying an airplane, things can go wrong with the equipment or with the environment. That’s so with anesthesia. Things can go wrong with equipment, or with the patient. So like a pilot, we’re there to correct those anomalies.”
Asked why she decided to leave North Dakota to continue her career at BBGH, she said, “Family. Michael (a former college English teacher who is now a full time writer) has family in the area. Our daughter and her family live in Denver, and my family (mother, father and two brothers) have, over time, moved to Rapid City. So I wanted something in that Denver/Rapid City corridor. When I talked with a recruiter she said she had an opening in Alliance, NE. It seemed perfect.”
Her nearly three months at BBGH have been fulfilling. “We have an excellent crew in Chuck Frisch, BS, MS, CRNA, FAAPM, CH and Amber Lockwood, CRNA,” she said. “We each attend ongoing education in various areas, and bring back what we’ve learned to share with each other. They are fantastic to work with, as are the surgeons and nurses and all the individuals who make the hospital function.”
She’s also excited with the soon-to-open new addition. “I’ve been lucky,” she said. “The last facility I worked in was brand new as well. So this is really exciting. It’s a measure of pride for the community. I’ve met some awesome people here. When I first visited, I saw the wonderful swimming pool, library and Performing Arts Center. There was even a dog park for my dogs! You usually don’t see something like that in a town this size. So yes, this town can be proud of itself. This place is as close to heaven for me as I can imagine. It’s a great town with great people. Salt of the Earth types … I’m saying that sincerely.” She and Michael are currently having a home built just west of BBGH. They are looking forward to moving in to it. She plans to walk to and from work every day.
Box Butte General Hospital is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
