Ulysses Johnson III is transforming patient experiences as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), bringing much-needed representation to a field where minority professionals remain underrepresented. A Grambling State University graduate and a member of American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) Johnson combines clinical excellence with compassion, advocating for preventative care while serving as an inspiration for the next generation of Black healthcare professionals.
Why healthcare? Can you describe your title and what attracted you to this field?
Well, first of all, my title consists of, I am a certified, registered nurse, anesthetist, which is an advanced practice nurse that has either a master’s degree, or a doctorate in nursing anesthesia, but pretty much I provide anesthesia in all clinical settings, and the background with that comes from my mother was a nurse.
Nursing was always my path ever since high school, because I like helping people, I like healing, and also I like to be a reflection of what the diversity of our country actually is, because it’s not every day when you walk in the room with somebody who looks like you is taking care of you. So that’s what really pushed me in a direction. And to take it even further by stepping into the advanced practice role as a nurse, anesthetist.
Take me back to Grambling State. What motivated you, what inspired you to desire to learn and to become a healer in our community?
Well, what motivated me the most is coming from a place of where you are always counted out. So I wanted to show people that I can do it, and you can do it, too, because I feel as if I’m a little model, is like I’m a walking solution. So I try to cut out a lot of those excuses of neither one of my parents. They don’t have college degrees. Both of them went to technical school. Things of that nature didn’t grow up in the best neighborhoods, but at the end of the day I had the drive to want more, and to do more.
In order to do that I had to make sure I went into a field where I can make a difference. Number one and Number two had the job security. Let’s be real about it. You can’t walk in there majoring in basket weaving, and think he don’t get out and make six figures like that’s not.
And at the same time yes, I was at Grambling, and I was a member of the world, famed tiger marching band, and a lot of times people get lost in the sauce you get caught up in college life, Greek life and all this stuff. But my thing was yes, I love the band. Yes, I love my fret. But at the end of the day I came to Grambling to be a nurse. So I was kept focused on what my primary focus was for being there. And that way I can be example for others to follow.
What three things would you tell young people about pursuing a career as an anesthetist?
For me personally. My main thing is, my philosophy has always been to practice with patients and care with confidence. So in this role as a nurse anesthetist. It’s almost like top tier in the profession of nursing. And so my top three things for my reason for doing it. Number one. I want to be in a place where I’ll be optimized fully in my skill set and my knowledgeability.
And with that being said, this is an area where there’s not many minorities in it already out of, like the 70,000 CRNAs in countries, only 4.5% of that are people of color.
And then you start looking at brothers that are in it, and those numbers are even tighter. So my thing for telling if they want to do number one, you need to do it because you actually have the sense to want to heal, to want to be an advocate for your people and for your community and not just chase a dollar. And I’m just being real. We all like money.
Money is good, but I feel that the reason why I’m able to resonate in my field is because people see the essence of who I am and they can feel what I’m doing. It has come from the right place, because a lot of times I can’t put my finger on it. I know it’s a being higher than me that works through me that allows me to have the outcomes that I do.
So that’s my personal thing. Everyone has a different thing. But my thing is this job security. You’re making a difference, and you sitting in a role to where you are the captain of the ship. So in order to step in that role, you have to have a confident no, you can come in and demand that room, because at the end of the day. The surgeon can’t cut till you say cut. They have to stop if you tell them to stop.
So to give my patients a sense of reassurance is the fact that they don’t know me. So I have a five min window to win the trust of mama, Daddy, Auntie, everybody who sized me up soon as I walked in the room, when they thought I was there with housekeeping or with transport. I’m like no sweetheart, I’m here to put you to sleep, so that right there is already a barrier.
So in that small window of time I have to let them know that, hey? I’m here to do a lot of things. I’m your bartender before you go to sleep. Now I’m your bodyguard while you sleep. So I’m here to make you feel good, look good and feel safe, that when you close your eyes, if someone allows you this most vulnerable part of their life.
You have to give them the reassurance that, like I got you, I’m gonna be there at the beginning, at the end, because at the end of the day. I’m here to make sure not only that you go to sleep, but to bring you back, and if I got to come in there and get you. I will.
How can patients manage anxiety before anesthesia?
Well, I’m glad that you asked that because I get faced with that a lot. And the main thing number one, get off of Google and stop watching all these, medical shows, and just take the time to just talk to the clinician that’s here to take care of you.
And I tell them all the time there’s a lot of safety measures that are in place to give you the reassurance that we’re here to make sure that we’re monitoring everything before your eyes, even close. We’re monitoring your vital signs, we’re monitoring your heart rate, your blood pressure all these different nuances, and there’s always a set of eyes on you at all times.
So I never disregard people’s anxiety. But when I see someone is anxious. Number one. I don’t let the room rush me. I take that time like, hey? Tell me how you feeling what’s going on, what’s going on with you today, at the end of the day I don’t look at them as just a patient or just a body, they’re a person. So I’m gonna come down on their level.
Sometimes I’m bending down, sometimes it could be intimidating. I’m a big, tall, black man with a Southern draw, and I’m up here in New York so they could throw a lot of people off, and I get it. But at the same time that Southern draw also gives people a little bit of peace as well.
That’s a conversation starter. Oh, you talk from the South, where you from. So here we go. You’re not even thinking about the anesthetic you worried about who this big black man in here, and why he talks so country? And does he know what he doing, before we know it, we joking. We’re talking about the kids and the mamas and all the other stuff. Then, before, we’re in the room and I’m like, Hey, baby, we’re about to go to sleep.
Okay. I want you to go somewhere nice and warm. Listen to the waves. Crash to the shore, my whole little spiel to kind of bring that calmness to them to the point of the people in the room like shoot we ready to go to sleep, too, like what’s up.
So you have to have a sense of emotional intelligence to be able to read the room, recognize those anxieties and uncertainties within people, and that’s a skill set that you don’t always acquire in school. That comes with time.
I look at my time at Grammar State University. You know it. It didn’t just teach me how to be a nurse. It taught me life lessons, and I tell them that’s the essence of HBCU. The experience that you walk away with you really come out very well-rounded and ready to tack on whatever’s thrown your way.
Why is colonoscopy awareness so important in our community?
I am a strong advocate for that, and the reason why I’m in the position I am. I have two jobs. I work full time in New York City. Then I work up in Buffalo part time at an endoscopy center, because that’s near and dear to me, because I’ve lost three close family members to colon cancer.
The significance of it is the nuances. Oh, I woke up. Somebody’s going to be up my butt, all these different things, but at the end of the day I’m there to give people the reassurance like it’s all about early detection and prevention.
And now that if you have a family history now, they’re pushing the age back. If you have a family history of colon, you can get your colonoscopy at 40 versus 45, you know. It’s all about preventative treatment, and to catch it early.
So I tell people that I know it’s a lot of anxiety comes along with it, but it’s going to be the best nap you’ve ever had. I tell you all the time it’s like, listen, it’s going to be the best disco nap you’ve ever had, and I’m the best bartender to do it. So now I try to get out in the community and let people know like, Look, this is a real thing.
From diets is like, we’re starting to see polyps and things in this. And even earlier people like people coming in for routine issues. Bowel change and stuff like that. And then we look up and they had a polyp, and they’re in their thirties now. What if they would have waited until 45. Wherever the standard time is that little polyp which is pretty much like a pimple inside your colon can literally turn into something worse.
So the key to it all is early detection, and to know that this is nothing barbaric. You’re not, ain’t, gonna remember even going into the room. You’re going to wake up nice, clear, and wonder. When do we start? I’m like, Look, we already done. Go ahead and pick out lunch, because you better get up out of here.
So that’s how I try to get them to see the fact that I understand the anxiety. I understand the uncertainty. So that’s why I think that the nursing in me, because the end of the day I was a critical care nurse, for 13 years before I went back to anesthesia school, because that’s a prerequisite.
You have to have critical care, experience before you can step into applying to be a CRNA, so that empathy and compassion and just bedside manner, and having a praying mama just gives me the overall recipe to come in there and do what I need to do to bring these people to where they need to get to safely.
Can you share about saving a life during a medical emergency on a flight?
That right there you started out right where it was. It was God, because at the end of the day, even leading up to that. I wasn’t supposed to be on that flight number one. My flight was canceled, so I was placed on that flight the next day number two. I was coming from Anesthesia Conference, and I had on scrubs that actually had diversity CRNA on it.
Now, me, personally, I’m just being real, a lot of times when I’m out and about somebody go down. Oh, we need a medical personnel sometimes. I kind of like, you know what? Let somebody else do it, because I don’t want to get in the shuffle of all that. But in this particular situation I was actually asleep already, taking off music in my ear, and then I heard grab the AED.
AED is like a defibrillator machine that the lay people use out there in the public area. So I’m hearing, and I’m thinking I’m dreaming, I’m like, Lord, why am I dreaming about work like it’s time for a vacation, because literally, I was like, why am I hearing about AED?
I so happened to open up my eyes, and I see the commotion. So I’m like, Oh, this is a real issue. This is not somebody blood sugars are going to drop. Somebody needs some crackers or got too hot like you grab an AED, you know it’s ball to the wall. We got to get to it. So I was like, all right, dude, go ahead and get up. So I went up, went up to where the first class area was introduced myself. Hello! I’m Ulysses, I’m a nurse, anesthetist. How can I be of an assistance?
And the passenger was still seated. Had the oxygen, but I couldn’t see his face. I saw the back of his head, and one of the flight attendants were like, Oh, we have a doctor here, so you can go have a seat. So I was like, say less.
So before I got really turned around, because one thing I’m not about to do is go back and forth. I know what I’m here to do, what I can provide. But when I got turned around before I turned around, just wanted to take a look at the passenger before I turned around, and that’s when I noticed he was already blue, taking agonal breaths.
So at this point, this is what this is what I’m trained to do. Take command, take ownership and clear the way. So at that point I don’t care who was there. Whoever was there was not performing at the ability they needed to be at that time. So at that time, I said, Get him on the floor and they’re looking at me, I said, get him on the floor now and start compressions.
Where’s the WES I system? Where’s your first aid, Kit, and like start getting your stuff together while I work on this? So that, doctor that was there. I said, you start working on the chest, I’ll keep the airway open, and we literally turned up.
We had no pulse. He was blue diaphoretic. Pretty much was one foot on the grave, one foot on the banana pill. To be honest, so continue to work, continue to work. Finally somebody came up with AED. Hooked him up to the paddles, got a shockable rhythm, shocked him like twice kept doing compressions. Then, thank God, a trauma nurse walked up.
I said, Oh, you’re a trauma, nurse. Open that bag up! Give me that, Ambu bag now, give him a rescue breath. So I pretty much orchestrated the entire code, which is what we do when things go down and we got the man back.
I thank God for that, because a dead body that high up in the air that that plane would have lost. It would have. The people would have lost their minds at that point, and the reason I know he was really in true distress is when I got down there with him, because, you wake up disoriented, and I’m type of person, sometimes body on body, has an effect.
So I literally laid down on the floor with this guy to give him the reassurance like, Okay, you’re good calm down, I don’t want you to hurt yourself.
But when I got down I realized, like he had already soiled himself. So one time, when you lose all your fluid. That’s how you on the way up out of here, if not already there.
But we kind of got you back on this side of glory, so I knew it was nothing but God from the beginning to the end. For me, being there for me, hearing, that even though I was asleep with music playing in my ears, so I know he and it gave me another sense of not being so upset when things are not quite going my way. I was upset.
I missed my flight. I had to call off from work. Did my job give me a hard time, because I’m calling in, and little do they know I’m 35,000 feet in the air, doing what I do to represent the profession well.
