#37 – Emotional Intelligence of SRNAs with Shawn Collins, DNP, PhD, CRNA

This episode is coming out on August 21, 2021 but it FIRST came out way back on September 19, 2015.   The show is on emotional intelligence of SRNAs with Dr Shawn Collins, DNP, PhD, CRNA. At the time of the interview, Dr Shawn Collins was the nurse anesthesia program director and the interim dean of the College of Health & Human Sciences at Western Carolina University (WCU).  I was super early in developing the podcast From the Head of the Bed and was actually still a SRNA at WCU even though the show was published after I graduated.  In the show, Dr Collins will walk us through what emotional intelligence is and how, if harnessed, can impact your work as an anesthesia trainee and provider.   I think emotional intelligence is central to human behavior, relationships and success in whatever you’re doing… it’s about how we relate to one another.  I love how Dr Collins talks about getting a bird’s eye view of any situation you’re in and reading the emotional state of the other people around you.  Exercising emotional intelligence is often about learning how to walk through your life with this third-person view point of the situations you’re in.  It’s about understanding where other people are at, where they’re coming from, what their biases & goals might be and adapting your interaction with them to get you both – or a whole team of people – moving in the direction you want.  It’s thinking about: who is this person, where are they coming from, what might their hopes, dreams, fears or concerns be right now, how do they perceive me, who do they think I am – who am I FOR REAL – where am I headed, what are my goals and how can I tailor my interaction with this individual, in the context of all this, to get us both moving where we need to go.  This is every day stuff for anesthesia providers.  Emotional intelligence, when harnessed, will make your interactions with patients so much better and more meaningful.  It’ll help you deal with surgeons, OR nurses, CSTs, hospital administrators, preceptors, your boss, your trainees & students with greater skill & efficacy.  Emotional intelligence is like a key that unlocks an incredibly powerful, supercharged tool in relationships and it will help create success for you in whatever stage of your career or, for that matter you marriage or dating relationships or business partnerships, that you’re in.   Dr Collins completed his master’s in anesthesia at Erlanger Medical Center at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, his doctor of nursing practice degree at Rush and his PhD in leadership at Andrew’s University.   Dr Collins is currently the associate dean for academic affairs and graduate studies for Loma Linda University’s School of Nursing, where he supports 2 master’s programs, a PhD program and 8 clinical doctorates.  He was the program director when I attended WCU and was instrumental in helping my classmates and I launch the podcast From the Head of the Bed, serving as our project chair and one of the co-authors of the paper we published on social media in nurse anesthesia education in the AANA Journal.  Without him giving us a huge GREEN LIGHT and a lot of support & guidance along the way, From the Head of the Bed, and therefore this podcast would not exist…  And with that, let’s get to the show….  Resources Collins S. Emotional Intelligence as a Noncognitive Factor in Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists. AANA Journal [serial online]. December 2013;81(6):465-472. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 19, 2015. Collins S, Andrejco K.