Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has named Nilu Patel, an Indian American, as a new appointee to the California Board of Registered Nursing. This announcement was made in conjunction with several other appointments from the Governor’s office.
Patel has been employed as a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) at the University of California, Irvine, a position she has held since 2008. In addition to her clinical work, she has also served as a faculty instructor in clinical anesthesiology at the University of Southern California (USC) since 2006.
Furthermore, Patel holds memberships in both the California Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology, where she has been recognized as a fellow. Her academic achievements include obtaining a Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she was honored with the AD William Scholarly Achievement Award.
Patel’s journey into the field of nursing began after a pivotal realization during her nursing undergraduate years. While tending to patients, she found that she did not have a preference for witnessing patients in pain, a sentiment she expressed during her initial experience assisting an elderly woman during her first hospital rotation. As a result, she decided to pursue a career in nurse anesthesia, as it provided her with the opportunity to alleviate people’s pain within her preferred setting, the operating room.
