Canisha Monai Benton, PA

Canisha M. Nicolas, MPH, PA-C, RDMS, RDCS, RVT, is a nationally certified physician assistant (PA) since 2007 with expertise in emergency medicine, hematology/oncology, and diagnostic (including oncologic and cardiac subspecialties) and interventional radiology. During her PA education, she received awards for clinical excellence/professionalism and scientific research and writing. She also served as her university’s Diversity Committee Leader of the Student Academy of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

To enhance her clinical care delivery as a PA, Canisha desired to gain professional knowledge of the use of ultrasound in medical diagnoses. She studied sonography while working as a full-time PA and gained medical, cardiac, and vascular ultrasound certification in 2010. She maintains those certifications to date.

While working on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, Canisha simultaneously completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) coursework, adding public health practitioner to her many titles. She integrates her medical proficiency with public health competencies to improve population health outcomes by enhancing quality and cost effectiveness in healthcare and community settings. She has been volunteering her time to collaborate with the New York State Department of Health in the analysis and manuscript development of original survey data to investigate specific drivers of clinician burnout (including the COVID-19 pandemic), its population health impact, and evidence-based system-level interventions.

In 2021, Canisha joined Prisma Health as a radiology PA. She performs diagnostic and interventional radiology adult and pediatric procedures under fluoroscopic and ultrasound guidance. Such procedures include arthrograms, joint aspirations, steroid hip injections, lumbar punctures, myelograms, gastrostomy and gastrojejunostomy tube exchanges, nasogastric tube placements, small bore feeding tube placements, esophagrams, upper GI series, barium and water-soluble contrast enemas, voiding cystourethrograms, modified barium swallows with speech therapists, sniff tests, paracenteses, thoracenteses, PICC line placement, tunneled and non-tunneled vascular catheter removal, and drainage catheter removal.

In her leisure time, Canisha enjoys installing ceramic tiles as a construction volunteer, traveling internationally to further develop cultural competence, watching classic film-noir movies, and creating handmade jewelry and art. She is a self-proclaimed foodie.