School names new nurse anesthesia program director

Joanne Donnelly, DNP, APRN, CRNA, joined the school as a clinical assistant professor and program director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice nurse anesthesia specialty.

Donnelly has been in practice as a nurse anesthetist since 1997, most recently at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, where she held an affiliate faculty appointment with the school.

Donnelly has served in clinical and administrative roles as a CRNA during the past 22 years, including responsibilities for clinical and didactic education for nurse anesthesia students and staff. She held academic appointments in schools of nursing and medicine and served as the associate program director for the nurse anesthesia program at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Her scholarship focuses on standardized communication, patient safety and airway management. She has been recognized as an outstanding instructor through two certificates of recognition from the Evanston Northwestern Healthcare School of Nurse Anesthesia and was a Nightingale Luminary Nominee from the Colorado Nurses Foundation.

Donnelly earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in nursing from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Bradley University.

The school’s Doctor of Nursing Practice nurse anesthesia program recently was granted the maximum 10-year accreditation from the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. The University of Minnesota School of Nursing was the first school in the nation to offer the Doctor of Nursing Practice specialty in nurse anesthesia.