CRNAs at Panorama City played a vital role to ensure patients had the right care at the right time with the Pan City intubation teams throughout the facility.
Pictured left to right:
Ernest Buccat RN, Roni Tolentino RN, James Hegesy CST, Art David RN, Kelly Murray MD, Paul Anamos CRNA, Samia Levasseur CRNA.
Kerrie Klein, CRNA, Area Representative Panorama City
Being a CRNA during the COVID-19 pandemic is both an honor and overwhelming mission.
It is an honor to have the knowledge and expertise to help a patient struggling to breathe
by placing a breathing tube. It is an honor to stand next to some of the most brilliant,
dedicated, and brave colleagues. It is an honor to know we make a difference and we just may save some lives.
In an already stressful job, our families and friends routinely provide relief from the stress.
We work for them. We look forward to that respite. COVID-19 has taken that from us. We are under
the most stress we have ever experienced, and we cannot see our families or friends for fear of
making them sick. This is so trying. Some of my colleagues have moved out of their homes to
protect their families, and come home to an empty place after a long and trying shift on the
intubation team. The ones who have chosen to stay home or do not have the option of moving out
push their children away until they can feel they are �safely clean.� But we never feel clean.
We have to reuse masks and carry them in paper bags... this goes against our training of using
things only once to prevent cross contamination.
The physical effects are difficult as well. It�s hard to eat, we have chest pains, stomach pains,
headaches, and trouble sleeping. It truly is this crushing feeling when you walk into the hospital
with varying degrees of despair. Everyone is terrified, some are trying to distract, some provide
comic relief, some go to the locker room and cry, some go over the little PPE we have find creative
ways to reuse. We know that at around 1% of us as healthcare workers will go down
(get critically ill or die... more will be carriers). I think that�s the hardest part for us.
At least for me, because I look around and wonder who it will be.
But we try to focus and we know we have a job to do. And we have each other.
We know what to do. And that helps me take a deep breath.
Kerrie Klein
Panorama City CRNA
Panorama City CRNAs at Christmas Party
Loretta Vejar, Kerrie Klein, Sue Ahn, Liezle Arevalo, Blair Mostofi
The Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association (KPNAA) is a union of
certified nurse anesthetists that work for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
We have 350 members of our union that work in facilities across the Southern California area.
KPNAA members provide professional excellence through advocacy, unity, and vigilance.
In 1978 Kaiser Permanente�s (KP) internal structure was strongly
encouraging the organization of nurses into existing bargaining groups. At that time,
the United Nurses Association of California (UNAC) was the premier nursing union for the
Southern California region�s seven Kaiser Foundation Hospital (KFH) Medical Centers.
Having been independent employees of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG)
for many years, the CRNAs were reluctant to become part of a large union structure despite
the organizational pressure and purported benefits. There was some benefit to bargaining
contracts as a group and no option to become partners of the physician-only SCPMG.
At the time, several CRNA�s from across the region had been
meeting occasionally for Saturday brunch to update each other on activities across the
region sharing items of professional and personal interest. Bette Greene, CRNA, had kept
informal notes (legend has it on the proverbial cocktail napkin). The opportunities at the
time were to organize in affiliation with an existing bargaining unit, appeal to SCPMG to
remain independent employees or seek an independent organization status through the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In an outstanding bit of strategy vs. luck,
the notes compiled to date were enough to convince the NLRB of the independent status
of the CRNAs. This was a time when independent unions were permitted outside of the
AFL-CIO or other national affiliates. The NLRB�s 1979 decision allowed
the Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association of Southern California
to be formed representing all CRNA�s employed by the SCPMG. Our Association was certified
as a regional union, not hospital by hospital as most other nursing unions function.
![[ KPNAA Logo ]](https://kpnaa.org/images/KPNAA-logo-cape-200x191.jpg){kind=logo}
![[ pdf ]](https://kpnaa.org/images/pdf.jpg)
