Richard Henker ’81, PhD, CRNA, FAAN, FAANA impacts global health with his commitment to helping advance nursing practice through teaching and mentorship
By Maddy Scharrer
The most amazing place nursing has taken Richard Henker ’81, PhD, CRNA, FAANA FAAN is Thimphu, the capital and largest city of Bhutan, a landlocked country in south-central Asia on the eastern edge of the Himalayan Mountains. Henker has made eight trips there, each being one to two months long, through a program called Health Volunteers Overseas. As part of the program, he went to support the anesthesia department at the University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan and helped with teaching and care during a time when they were short of anesthetists. “The view of the Himalayas was amazing,” Henker remembers.
His work in Bhutan is just a piece of Henker’s global health impact. In 2022 he moved from full time to a part-time professor appointment at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and has been a visiting professor with global appointments in Harbin China, Nakon Phanom Thailand, Narita Japan, Tainan Taiwan, Bangkok and Tokyo.
Each year, Henker dedicates a few months to various locations where he has impactful nursing and teaching roles. In these positions, Henker has the opportunity to advance access to surgical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through his work and advocacy. “Currently my greatest passion is advocacy for nursing,” Henker began, “especially the role of nurse anesthetist within global surgery and anesthesia.” While Bhutan holds a special place in Henker’s heart, it’s not his most frequented location. With over 50 trips to Cambodia, and 15 trips to Laos, Henker truly gives new meaning to the term “global impact”.
Although Henker now considers Nagasaki, Japan home and he has leadership positions in multiple global health organizations, his career didn’t always involve traversing the globe. Henker’s professional nursing journey began in the trauma and life support center of the University of Wisconsin Hospital in 1981 after graduating with his Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) from the School of Nursing.
Soon after, Henker went on to earn a master’s degree in medical-surgical nursing from the University of Arizona, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in nursing science from the University of Washington, all while working as a staff nurse at the respective university hospitals. In 1993, after completing his PhD, he became an assistant professor at Pitt and committed fully to teaching and research.
Shortly after beginning the position, Henker felt something was off. “As a University of Pittsburgh faculty, I was missing my work in the clinical setting,” Henker said. As a result, his department chair recommended the idea of going through Pitt’s Nurse Anesthesia MSN program to broaden his nursing practice, and it was a perfect fit for Henker: a way to combine his passions and begin his global health journey.
“I had always wanted to do global health work,” Henker said, “and there were many opportunities to support nurse anesthesia programs around the world with teaching and clinical instruction.”
Ever since, Henker has worked, taught, and volunteered as a nurse anesthetist around the world. His primary efforts now are focused in Laos and Cambodia, where he advances anesthetist practices and mentors young nurses. Mentoring is a large part of Henker’s life and his impact on global health, and he’s been mentoring new graduate nurses since his early career. He learned the importance of fostering those relationships from his own mentor, John Clochesy MS’81, PhD, MA, RN, who “made a significant impact” on Henker’s career path.
Clochesy has been an inspiration in Henker’s life for many years, dating back to when he was Henker’s instructor at the School of Nursing. From there, the two worked together at both the University of Arizona Hospital and at Pitt. “Early in my career at Arizona, John worked with me on teaching, and he encouraged me to write manuscripts, do research, and present nationally while,” Henker said. They went on to start the same day at Pitt and have written many publications together. “John helped me develop confidence,” Henker said.
This confidence has helped Henker soar in his own career and has provided him with the ability to mentor students himself. “Everybody has something to offer students,” Henker said, “sharing your life experiences and just listening to students can contribute to the student’s professional growth.”
This mentorship philosophy travels with Henker to his various global positions. About three times a year for a total of two months, Henker works at Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem Reap, Cambodia where he dedicates much time to mentoring nurse anesthetists. Recently, Henker was recognized for his leadership work in Cambodian nursing programs with an award from the International Council of Nursing.
Along with this, Henker works with ways to advance anesthesia practices while in Cambodia and Laos. Currently, he is focusing on an operative encounter registry initiative, a collaborative effort with the Global Alliance for Surgery, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anesthesia Care and the World Health Organization (WHO). The initiative involves data collection on surgical patient outcomes to improve the quality of care and provide data to support policy initiatives at the country, region, and global level.
“I enjoy my time in Cambodia a great deal because I provide hands on anesthetics, lecture, and provide an all-day Crisis Team Management Simulation course for the doctors and nurses throughout the hospital,” Henker said, adding, “I particularly enjoy being in the operating theatre providing anesthesia for children at Angkor Hospital for Children.”
For two months of the year, Henker can be found working at Lao Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC) and involved with the Lao Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO country office in Vientiane. His work centers on many of the same aspects of his work in Cambodia: nurse anesthetist practices and mentorship.
“Of the groups of students I mentor, I am incredibly proud of the nurse anesthetists at Lao Friends Hospital for Children in Luang Prabang, Laos,” Henker said after a conference at Luang Prabang Providence Hospital at which the nurse anesthetists lectured and helped debrief simulation sessions.
On top of his global health work, Henker has kept a part time appointment with the University of Pittsburgh as a professor, which allows him to bring the students he mentors in Cambodia and Laos to the United States.
“I have brought many [AHC and LFHC nurse anesthetists] to the U.S. to join nurse anesthetist meetings and observe anesthesia in the operating room in Pittsburgh hospitals,” Henker said. “I also have them lecture at the University of Pittsburgh.” Henker also brings students from the U.S. to AHC and LFHC. Three times a year, he takes nurse anesthesia students from Pitt across the world for a three-to-four-week clinical rotation.
Over the years, mentorship has become an integral part of Henker’s career, quickly making its way to the top of his priorities list. With his vast mound of experiential knowledge, Henker makes it a point to give back to students the same way his mentor did for him. He says, “mentoring is what I do more than almost anything else at this point.” This holds true, as Henker mentors students at Keio University in Tokyo and National Cheng Kung University in Tiawan where he is a visiting professor along with mentoring nursing students at the UW–Madison School of Nursing through the Badger Nurse Mentorship Program on top of his Pitt, AHC, and LFHC mentees.
Much of Henker’s love for global health work has rubbed off on his family, as well. His wife (WHO consultant) and two daughters are all involved in health care around the world. Like Henker’s work, his eldest daughter is devoted to bettering medical devices in low- and middle-income countries through Sisu Global, an auto transfusion device manufacturing company she co-founded and runs as president. His youngest daughter has even discovered she shares the same passions for nurse anesthesia and mentorship as her father. “My youngest daughter is also a CRNA and she joined me to teach nurse anesthesia students at AHC and Lao Friends Hospital for Children,” Henker said.
Along with his family working around the globe with him, Henker’s Badger nurse badge of honor travels with him always. As part of the network of Badger Nurses impacting global health, Henker is a prime example of the Wisconsin Idea. He shared what it feels like to experience the Badger connection across the world. “I am very proud of being a Badger nurse,” Henker said, and reflected on an experience he had after the 2023 World Health Assembly. “I had a Wisconsin shirt on, and I heard a ‘Go Badgers’ while walking down the street in Geneva, Switzerland. [I’m] very proud to be associated with the University of Wisconsin.”