Biographical Sketch:
Emily Grost is a native of Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with her BSN
in 2006. She moved to San Diego after graduation where she worked at UCSD in the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit and later in the Adult Intensive Care Unit. While working as a nurse, she was a
member of the local and national nurses’ associations for each specialty. Additionally, she was the
fundraising chair for the Southern California Association of Neonatal Nurses and later was a
member of the ICU education committee that created monthly educational in-services for the staff.
Emily currently attends the University of Pittsburgh, class of Fall 2013, where she is an active
member of their mentorship programs. In her free time she enjoys attending live concerts, creating
mosaics and stained glass pieces, cooking, baking, yoga, and going to the beach.
Position Statement
It is my belief that learning how to administer anesthesia is only one component of
working as a nurse anesthetist. Nurse anesthetists must also understand and be cognizant of the
political and professional issues that affect daily practice. As your elected student representative,
my attention will be focused on mobilizing student nurse anesthetists to learn more about the
primary issues that impact our profession. Some of these issues include scope of practice,
supervision requirements, Medicare billing, and federal education funding. The landscape of the
profession is changing quickly, and it is in our best interest to get involved now in order to
facilitate a more successful future for our profession.
One professional issue we could influence is the ability to rally together to advocate for
increase in Title VIII nursing education funding. Anesthesia residents receive billions of dollars
in funding while all fields of advance practice nursing receive only a few million dollars
combined. APNs are a high quality, safe, and cost effective way to provide solutions to the
economic healthcare crisis. Our country is in the midst of significant budget cuts to public
schools as well as increased fees and interest rates of student loans. The average CRNA
graduates with more than $50,000 of debt with dwindling options for sign-on bonuses, hospitalfunded tuition reimbursement contracts, and few rural and underserved hospital incentive
programs. Nurse anesthetists are a valuable asset to our country’s healthcare crisis and we need
to rally together for increased funding.
As your elected student representative, I want to use social media to educate and
motivate. I understand that, as students, we are drowning in lecture slides, assigned readings, and
projects. I want to create an SRNA Twitter feed and Facebook page that provide short snippets
of pertinent news and policy updates. If student nurse anesthetists spent a few minutes reading
the social media updates, perhaps during a study break, a few times a month, we could all
become stronger advocates for our profession and ourselves.
We need to become educated, passionate, and motivated about the issues that impact us
in order to bring about change. We are the future of this profession and it is up to us to learn
what will affect our industry and rally to implement change.
EMILY R. GROST
EDUCATION
University of Pittsburgh
Enrolled in Masters of Science in Nursing – Anesthesia
Current GPA: 3.9
University of Texas
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Cumulative GPA: 3.5, University Honors, Dean’s List, College Scholar
Pittsburgh, PA
2011 - Present
Austin, TX
May 2006
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
SRNA Clinical Practicum
Pittsburgh, PA
2011 - Present
University of California San Diego Medical Center - Thornton
Intensive Care Unit
Clinical Nurse II, Heart Nurse, Resource Nurse, Code Nurse
La Jolla, CA
2009 - 2011
University of California San Diego Medical Center – Hillcrest
Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Clinical Nurse II
San Diego, CA
2006 - 2009
San Diego Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled
Respite Care Nurse
San Diego, CA
2008 - 2010
LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS
Pennsylvania Registered Nurses License
CCRN, ACLS, PALS, NRP, BLS
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Session Coordinator for WISER International Symposium on Nursing Simulation
University of Pittsburgh Professional CRNA Mentorship Program
University of Pittsburgh Student Mentorship Program
May 2012
2011 - Present
2011 - Present
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
American Association of Critical Care Nurses
San Diego Chapter of American Association of Critical Care Nurses
UCSD Thornton ICU Education Committee
National Association of Neonatal Nurses
Fundraising Chair of Southern California Association of Neonatal Nurses
UCSD NICU Communication Team
2011 - Present
2009 - 2011
2009 - 2011
2009 - 2011
2007 - 2009
2007 - 2009
2007 - 2009