Brent Dunworth, MSN, MBA, APN, CRNA, has been named associate director of Advanced Practice, Anesthesia.
In the newly created role, Dunworth oversees more than 130 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Vanderbilt’s Adult Preoperative Anesthesia Clinic Nurse Practitioners and the Anesthesia Perioperative Nurse Practitioners.
Dunworth was selected and recruited through a national search, co-led by Warren Sandberg, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Marilyn Dubree, MSN, R.N., Executive Chief Nursing Officer, assisted by a search committee of leaders in Anesthesiology, Advanced Practice Nursing and Perioperative Services.
“This was a truly collaborative and rigorous search for a key leader who straddles multiple disciplines and missions,” Sandberg said. “We were committed to a search process that represented the successful candidate’s entire portfolio.”
Added Dubree, “I am delighted that we have such a strong individual to join our team in the collaborative care of perioperative patients. Brent adds strength to the work that is already being done by our team of CRNAs, physicians and nurses.”
Dunworth said he was excited about the new position and appreciated the warm Vanderbilt welcome.
“After a very full three-day interview session (at Vanderbilt), I looked forward to catching up on some needed sleep on the flight home,” he said. “However, the excitement that Vanderbilt had instilled in me during my visit kept me awake the entire way back. It was a great professional match for me, and I look forward to my time ahead with this esteemed organization.”
In his new role, Dunworth will be a part of Vanderbilt’s Advanced Practice Nursing Leadership Group and will meet regularly with other advanced practice nursing leaders to discuss organization-wide APRN goals, said April Kapu, DNP, APRN, associate nursing officer and VUMC advanced practice director in the Office of Advanced Practice.
“We really think he’s going to lead this group from national leaders to world-class leaders in anesthesia,” Kapu said.
Added Sandberg, “CRNAs and NPs in the perioperative enterprise are a major component of Vanderbilt’s complement of APRNs and key to our mission.”
In addition, Dunworth will assume the chief CRNA role, which was held in the interim by Buffy Lupear, DNP, CRNA, APRN. Lupear, who was named Quality and Patient Advocacy director for Anesthesia, did a fantastic job in the interim role, Kapu said.
Linda Norman, DSN, R.N., Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing and dean of the Vanderbilt School of Nursing (VUSN), said Dunworth will have a secondary faculty appointment at VUSN.
“We are very pleased to have him as a part of our faculty,” she said.
Dunworth joined Vanderbilt in August from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he was the senior director for Nurse Anesthesia and Faculty for the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and Waynesburg University College of Nursing. He was responsible for organizational growth and operations for 16 hospitals and more than 450 nurse anesthetists.
Dunworth holds his Bachelor and Master of Science in Nursing from University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Business Administration from Waynesburg University. He is pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is due to graduate in 2016.
He has worked at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for 16 years. Prior to that, he worked as a professional nurse for Allegheny General Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Throughout his career, Dunworth has received many awards, including the University of Pittsburgh Outstanding Young Alumnus, Ruth Perkins Kuehn Award, Didactic Instructor of the Year and the State of Pennsylvania Nightingale Award. He is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and has been a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists as well as the Tennessee Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
Among his published articles are “Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus: Case Reviews Following Transplantation” and “Conscious Sedation: Getting It Right.” He has presented his works in multiple national forums and has served on numerous university, hospital and national committees.
