Diane Gaw, CRNA, MSN

My career in nursing started out in critical care. Immediately, after graduating nursing school, I started working in a coronary care unit. The acuity of the patients I cared for and the advanced knowledge needed to care for them allowed me to challenge myself on a daily basis. After three years in critical care nursing, I decided to take the skills and education I had gained on the unit and apply them towards a specialty in Nurse Anesthesia.

Today, as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) at Fox Chase Cancer Center, I still challenge myself on a daily basis to deliver the best anesthesia possible to every patient I meet. I collaborate with an anesthesiologist on each patient we care for and together we determine which anesthetic approach is most suitable for that individual. We go above and beyond to make surgery a stress free, pain free experience.

I joined the anesthesia team at Fox Chase Cancer Center because I knew the kinds of surgery I would be involved in would allow me to attain a personal goal of constant learning. A day doesn’t go by that I do not learn something new.

Just as I sat at the bedside of my patient in the coronary care unit for hours on end tending to their every need, I sit at the head of my patient in the operating room for every second of their surgery keeping them safe.  It is a privilege to take care of people at such a time of need and I take that opportunity very seriously.