Newswise — Park Ridge, Ill. – The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) presented Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) Michael P. Dosch, PhD, CRNA with the Program Director of the Year Award during its 2021 Virtual Congress, August 13-17.

The Program Director of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize a CRNA who has made a significant contribution as a Program Director to the educational process of student nurse anesthetists.  The award recognizes the individual's commitment to the profession of nurse anesthesia and to the advancement of educational standards that further the art and science of anesthesiology and result in high-quality patient care.

Dosch is professor and chair of nurse anesthesia at University Detroit Mercy in Detroit, Michigan, and practices clinically at Beaumont-Dearborn Hospital in Dearborn. He has been the program director at the University of Detroit Nurse Anesthesia program since 1991. During his tenure, he doubled the size of the program and transitioned it from a hospital-based model to university-based.

“I am sincerely thankful to the students and faculty colleagues who nominated me for this award,” Dosch said. “I can think of no higher calling than helping to educate the next generation of CRNAs. It has been a job that has given me much and allowed me to give much back.“

Caring for patients is at the core of Dosch’s professional endeavors, according to his nomination. “He is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist with nearly 35 years of experience…he continues to this day to apply his exemplary clinical skills to caring for a complex patient population…He has influenced hundreds of students who have benefited not only from his ability to convey complex concepts in an understandable manner, but also from the fact that he continues to be an active practitioner.”  A current student lauded him for making a “significant contribution to the educational process of every student nurse anesthetist that has had the opportunity to come in contact with him in the classroom or in the operating room.”

Since 2001, Dosch has served as chair and on-site reviewed for the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. For more than 30 years he has been a reviewer for and served on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, where he also served as associate editor from 2012-2016.  In his many years as an educator, Dosch has published 13 book chapters, more than 30 journal articles, and regularly presents at state and national meetings on a variety of clinical and pedagogic topics.  He has twice been recognized by the Michigan Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ Student Organization with the Guiding Light Award.

Dosch earned his bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and completed his nursing degree at Mercy School of Nursing in Detroit, where he also earned his master’s degree in nurse anesthesia. He has a doctorate in instructional technology from Wayne State University.