This year at the 82nd Annual Meeting TANA’s 2019 Patty Cornwell Practitioner of the Year Award was awarded to Molly G. Wright DNP, CRNA, APN from Jackson, TN.
Nominated by 68 of her fellow TANA Members, Molly Wright, DNP, CRNA, APN was selected this year as our award winner. In her nomination letter sent in by Brian Foster, DNP, CRNA, he noted some highlights, “I have never known of a more qualified person than Dr. Wright. It is my sincere hope and desire that I may adequately communicate her positive virtues, the fact that she has taught and mentored over 300 CRNAs, she could probably tell you where they moved to, where they are working, marriages, children, and life events. They still call her to share their life with her. It is incredible; she knows all of her students. I believe she can retain this information because she has invested everything for every one of these students. They were all unique and special in her eyes as the Program Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at Union University.” Brian noted, “Dr. Wright is also an exemplary clinician. She has been performing anesthesia services in West Tennessee for 27 years. At Jackson Madison County General Hospital the operating room staff noted “she is just as amazing in the operating room as she is in the classroom. The faculty could not go to lunch with Dr. Wright without her seeing a former patient, hugging them, taking time to talk, and encouraging them.”
Every year Molly took approximately 20 to 30 students to the Dominican Republic on a week-long mission trip. Brian commented, “She did this every year as a service to the students. This is not a part of the anesthesia curriculum. It is a voluntary trip that she organized and implemented every year because she felt it was so essential for students to feel the joy of sacrificial giving. She gave them the opportunity to go somewhere and help people that could not possibly do anything for them in return. She always went to the local nursing home and showed the students the power of bending your knees to wash someone’s feet. Professionally, Molly is extremely active in advancing the profession of nurse anesthesia. She serves as the director of the program development committee for the Tennessee Association of Nurse Anesthetists and has for several years. She also previously served on the Education Committee. She has also served at the national level of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetist in various capacities. She regularly lobbies her state and federal representatives on issues pertaining to education funding and scope of practice issues.”