Related speakers
Professor and Director of Research Virginia Commonwealth University
Dr. Biddle arrived at the VCU campus in August of ’99 as Professor and Director of Research. His basic nursing education was obtained at the University of Southern Colorado, after which he went on to obtain his anesthesia education, Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. While teaching at the University of Kansas’ Graduate Program in Nurse Anesthesia he obtained his PhD (emphasis areas: research methods and epidemiology) and in 1992, assumed the role of Chief Nurse Anesthetist at Dartmouth Medical School and Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Dr. Biddle’s research and publication portfolio is highly eclectic in nature, reflecting the diversity of clinical practice that nurse anesthetists encounter. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists for over 15 years, serves as a reviewer for several other professional journals, and sits on several national committees, including the National Library of Congress’ Medline review panel for anesthesiology and critical care. His major professional goals are oriented towards helping students, practitioners and scholars bridge the "research to practice gap", and mentoring students who are navigating the challenging course of anesthesia education.
Professor Kirsner’s basic nursing education was obtained at the University of Miami where he received his BSN in 1979. He continued with his education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he received his anesthesia certificate in 1983 and his MS(Nursing) in 1985. In 1987 he returned to the University of Miami where he served as Symposium Editor of the University of Miami Law Review and received his JD (cum laude) in 1990.
Professor Kirsner began his career as an emergency department and medical intensive care unit nurse at Jackson Memorial / University of Miami Medical Center. After completing his anesthesia training he returned there as a nurse anesthetist. He practiced as a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board before beginning his academic career in nurse anesthesia at the University of Kansas. He served as Program Director for the Nurse Anesthesia Program at Baylor College of Medicine and also worked as a clinician at Ben Taub General Hospital and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He served as the founding director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Professor Kirsner has served as an editorial board member, book review section editor and editorial committee member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Journal. His publications include articles in the legal and anesthesia literature; he has authored book chapters, including co-authoring a chapter in The Chemistry of Drugs for Nurse Anesthetists. His presentations include state and national and international meetings including 6 presentations at AANA Annual Meetings. He has also presented before the Swedish Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the World Congress for Nurse Anesthetists in Helsinki. His current research interests include patient safety, the provision of anesthesia for oncologic surgical patients and the development of shared curricula in acute care nurse practitioner and nurse anesthesia programs.
Outside of work Professor Kirsner enjoys running (having run 4 marathons), training in martial arts (he is a black belt in the Chayon-Ryu martial arts style), scuba diving (he is a NAUI scuba instructor) and hiking, which he does in the Cumberland Gap region of Tennessee where he lives and elsewhere. He also enjoys studying nature and reading books of all kinds.
