TANA President Brad Koss, DNAP, CRNA, APN, was recently named one of the Top-50 Alumni of the Nashville-based Belmont University School of Nursing in conjunction with the school’s 50th Anniversary. Since the school was established in 1972, more than 4,000 nurses have graduated from its various nursing programs.
Brad earned his BSN from Belmont in 2005, the first step toward his successful career in nurse anesthesia. Today he is the CRNA Manager of Education at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and in the homestretch of his one-year term as TANA president, which wraps up this October.
“Belmont developed my understanding of what it means to care for others and to do so in a safe and effective manner,” Brad said. “The School of Nursing will always be my foundation for everything I’ve attained in my career. I think it was well said by Dr. Cathy Taylor (DPH, MSN, BSN, dean of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences and Nursing) during the anniversary gala that ‘Belmont nurses have been recognized for excellence, service and care marked by genuine compassion.’ I strive for excellence every day that I perform anesthesia because my patients deserve that kind of care.”
Interestingly, Brad didn’t exactly take a direct route to becoming a CRNA. A Computer Information Systems major in a previous life, he started searching for a different career path after a 10-year stint in IT. It wasn’t until he spent a day shadowing a nursing friend at a hospital that the idea of shifting gears and pursuing a career as a nurse clicked inside him.
Brad recalls attending night school to obtain the prerequisites to apply to nursing school, after which he was accepted into the Belmont program. Upon earning his RN, he went to work in the trauma unit at Vanderbilt and gained the critical care nursing experience needed for acceptance into a nurse anesthesia program. He eventually attained his Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia (2009) and Doctorate in Nursing Anesthesia Practice (2020) from Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia in Madison, Tenn.
“Being named one of the Belmont School of Nursing’s Top-50 Alumni is very humbling,” Brad said. “I consider it a great honor and privilege to be able to represent Belmont and the School of Nursing which I admire so much. All I have ever strived for was to treat people with respect and do my best to help them through difficult times.”
Brad thanks Professor Martha Buckner, PhD, MSN, BSN, one of his former instructors and now the associate dean of Nursing, for nominating him as a Top-50 Alumnus. “I am forever indebted to Dr. Buckner and all the other amazing instructors who helped prepare me for my career as a nurse and a CRNA when I was a student at Belmont,” he said.
The Belmont Nursing Program’s 50th Anniversary and Top-50 Alumni were celebrated during a gala event held at the Fisher Performing Arts Center in Nashville on May 14.
Congratulations to Brad on this well-deserved honor!
Read more about the Belmont School of Nursing’s Top-50 Alumni and Gala Celebration