Sandra Ouellette
Vice President 

Sandra Ouellette is a graduate of Watts Hospital School of Nursing, Durham, North Carolina. The following year she entered the North Carolina Baptist Hospital School of Anesthesia for Nurses, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She obtained a BS Degree in Biology from Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina and completed her Masters in Education at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May 1986. She served as Program Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center/University of North Carolina Greensboro from 1982-2005.

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She served on numerous nurse anesthesia committees at both the local and state level and is a past president of the North Carolina Association of Nurse Anesthetists. National (AANA) professional responsibilities have included the following: Item Review Committee, Council on Certification; On-Site Visitor for Programs of Anesthesia, Council on Accreditation; and educational representative, Council on Recertification. She served on the ASA/AANA Liaison Committee and the Nominating Committee of the AANA. She served as Regional Director, Vice President, and President-Elect of the AANA and was President of the AANA from 1988-1989. She was Chairman of the National Commission on Nurse Anesthesia Education in 1990 and Co-Chaired the AANA DNP Task Force. More recently (2014-2015) she served on the AANA CPC Task Force representing CE sponsors on this task force. She also represented AANA as an affiliate member to ANA’s Congress on Nursing Practice and Economics. She was appointed to the ICN Expert Panel on Nursing Leadership in 2006 and was nominated by ANA.

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Ms. Ouellette has been active in the International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists. She chaired the Education and Practice Committee from 1989-2004 and formulated educational and practice standards which were adopted by the group in the 1990’s. She drafted the ethical standards which are now adopted and spoke at all ten international meetings: Switzerland 1985; Amsterdam 1988; Norway 1991; France 1994; Austria, 1996; Chicago, 2000; Finland, 2002; Switzerland 2006, The Netherlands 2010 and Slovenia 2012. She is served as the Chairperson of the Practice Committee, International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists (2010-2014). She served three, two year terms as IFNA President (2004-2010). 

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Ms. Ouellette has lectured extensively at both the national and international level.

 

She has presented at 882 meetings in 40 states since 1972. Additional international presentations have been given in Canada, Germany, Korea, British West Indies.

 

She has 97 publications to her credit including 17 chapters and 2 books.

 

She received the Achievement Award from the North Carolina Association of Nurse Anesthetists in 1994. She was selected as a Great 100 RN in North Carolina in 1993. In 1995 she became a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. In 1996 she received the Dannemiller Award for Excellence in Anesthesiology. She received the AANA Program Director of the Year Award in 1997 and the AANA 24th Agatha Hodgins Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in 1998.She received the Hermi Lohnert award from IFNA in June 2010 for outstanding contributions to the international nurse anesthesia community and in 2012 she received the AANA Helen Lamb Award for outstanding contributions in nurse anesthesia education.

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Ms.Ouellette is the former President of R and S Ouellette Inc, a consulting company that specialized in continuing education, organizational leadership, and legal consultation in nurse anesthesia affairs.

 

She formerly served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She continues to teach at nurse anesthesia programs at : Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Major responsibilities include didactic instruction in physiology, pharmacology, and anesthesia-related topics at these graduate anesthesia programs.

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In 2019, Ouellette was awarded  an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Wake Forest University. This recognition was given "for decades of educational advancement and organizational growth in the international nurse anesthesia community, Wake Forest School of Medicine Nurse Anesthesia Program and a humanitarian spirit.”  

 

She has served as course director for CRNA Review and Update, a reinstatement course for nurse anesthetists. This course has been offered from 2007 to 2016 and was the only approved course for reinstatement is the country. 

 

Ms. Ouellette is a frequent guest, featured on 38 episodes of the Podcast Series "Beyond the Mask" and is an expert in the history of nurse anesthesia.