Your Complete Guide to Understanding Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants: Pt. 1 What is a CAA?

Curious about what it truly means to be a Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant (CAA)? You're in the right place! From nearly two decades of experience, I share a clear and comprehensive breakdown of the CAA profession. Think of me as your older sister or best friend, guiding you step-by-step through the essentials—from what CAAs actually do to how much money we make, no topic is off limits. Whether you're an aspiring AA student or simply exploring a career in medicine, this guide equips you with the insights you need to understand the CAA profession.

In Part 1 we dive into the foundation of what it means to be a CAA. I'll clarify common lingo, highlight the distinctions between CAAs and other anesthesia professionals, and provide vital information for those prepping for AA school interviews. By the end of this episode, you'll not only grasp the basics but also appreciate the nuanced and vital position we hold within the anesthesia care team and the broader medical community. 

Helpful Resources:

• American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAAA) -the CAA profession's national governing board
• AAAA statement on "What is a CAA" 
• American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) on CAAs
• Looking for Day in the Life CAA content? find it HERE and HERE
• "What is a CAA?" YouTube video (produced by AAAA 2015) 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Awakened Anesthetist podcast,
the first podcast to highlightthe CAA experience.
I'm your host, mary Jean, andI've been a certified
anesthesiologist assistant forclose to two decades.
Throughout my journey andstruggles I've searched for
guidance that includes my uniqueperspective as a CAA, at one of

(00:42):
my lowest one.
I encourage you to stick aroundand experience the power of
being in a community filled withvoices who sound like yours,
sharing experiences you neverbelieved possible.
I know you will find yourselfhere at the Awakened Anesthetist
Podcast.
Welcome in.
Hello Awakened Anesthetistcommunity, welcome to this new

(01:05):
little series I'm doing I'mcalling it Understanding CAAs
and basically I want to be theolder sister, the best friend,
who really breaks down from theinside what a certified
anesthesiologist assistant or aCAA, what that is in terms of
what we do in the medical field,how we get there, where we can

(01:29):
work, where we can't work, sortof all of the do's and don'ts
and highs and lows and just giveit to you really plainly,
because I know that if you are aprospective AA student right
now, or someone who maybe wantsto be in medicine but not sure
in what area, it's really hardto just find very clear, direct
information that's not usingwords that you don't quite

(01:51):
understand, and even if you dounderstand it, it's nice to hear
someone from the inside justgive it to you plainly, and so
that's what I'm doing here.
I really hope these episodesare helpful.
I hope that they're sort ofshort and sweet and information
given to you in little bursts sothat you can take it along your
journey and, if you one daybecome a CAA, I hope this helps

(02:13):
you in that journey to join ourprofession.
So in the first episode of thismini series, I'm going to just
be really basic and break downwhat is a certified
anesthesiologist assistant.
I'm going to clue you in onsome of the really common lingo
and what you would need to knowat a very basic level, as well

(02:34):
as information that you're goingto want to have mastered if you
are interviewing to be enrolledin an AA school.
You're really going to want tohave a very clear understanding
of what a CAA is, who we are inthe anesthesia care team, how we
fit into the larger medicalpicture and really just
understand the profession thatyou one day may be getting into.

(02:58):
Let's start from the verybeginning and just make very
clear that a CAA is a CertifiedAnesthesiologist Assistant.
Caa is an acronym for ourprofession and in medicine in
general.
There are a lot of acronyms.
I'm going to be giving some ofthose to you today, but it's
just a way to speak, sort of amedical jargon way to speak, and

(03:21):
it becomes pretty sort ofback-of-your-hand knowledge
eventually.
But then you get into adifferent group of people who
aren't medical and you realizethat you're speaking entirely
other language.
So a CAA is a CertifiedAnesthesiologist Assistant, and
you can tell that just by ourname alone.
We are defined by otherprofessions, meaning an

(03:44):
anesthesiologist, and so I wouldlove to break down what a CAA
is not in order to give you aclear picture of what a CAA
actually is.
So here are a few professionsthat are involved in anesthesia
but are not CAAs.
So a CAA is not a physician, oralso called an anesthesiologist

(04:09):
, or, more recent times, thesepeople are called physician
anesthesiologists.
So we are not any of thosethings.
A physician, ananesthesiologist or a physician
anesthesiologist refers tosomeone in the anesthesia
workforce who has gone tomedical school, done an
anesthesia-specific residencyand may or may not have done an

(04:33):
even further education called afellowship.
A certified anesthesiologistassistant, as our name would
indicate, is an assistant tothis type of physician, a
physician, anesthesiologist.
Okay, let's move on to anotherperson who's in the anesthesia
workforce.

(04:53):
A CAA is also not a CRNA, a CRNA.
A CRNA is a nurse anesthesiaprovider, and that acronym
stands for certified registerednurse anesthetist.
This type of anesthesiaprovider is often confused with

(05:15):
a CAA and vice versa, becausewhen both a CAA and a CRNA are
employed at the same hospital,they almost always do exactly
the same job, and so it's hardfor the other people who are
encountering both of theseprofessions to distinguish who

(05:35):
is who.
The difference between CAAs andCRNAs are many and also few,
and that's a conversation foranother day.
But a CAA is not a certifiedregistered nurse anesthetist, a
CRNA anesthetist, a CRNA.
Okay, let's keep going.
A CAA is also not an anesthesiatechnician.

(05:57):
I had to Google what exactly ananesthesia technician is,
because I know an anesthesiatechnician to be someone who
aids an entire anesthesiadepartment and is often involved
in things like orderinganesthesia equipment, stocking
anesthesia equipment.
Depending on the hospital thatthe anesthesia technician works

(06:21):
at, they can do slightly morehigh level things like setting
up monitoring.
They can check an anesthesiamachine to make sure it's
working properly, and so on andso forth.
So an anesthesia technician issomeone who does not actually
deliver anesthesia but supportsthe people who do deliver

(06:43):
anesthesia, and it is afull-blown, wonderful career.
It is often a career that CAAsrecommend prospective students
look into if they're consideringbecoming a CAA, because you
work within the team to helpsupport the anesthesia team and
you can see from the inside whatit's like to deliver anesthesia

(07:05):
.
Okay, we have one more what aCAA is not, and this one can be
a little bit tricky.
So let me break it down for you.
We are not always ananesthetist.
So you may notice there's adifference between the word
anesthesiologist and anesthetist, but when people are referring

(07:27):
to those who give anesthesia,oftentimes they refer to any of
those people as anesthetist.
Now I will say that physiciananesthesiologists do not
consider themselves anesthetist.
From the physiciananesthesiologist perspective, an
anesthetist refers to someonewho does not have a medical

(07:49):
degree, a medical degree.
So a CAA can be an anesthetistsometimes, but we're not an
anesthetist all the time.
So let me just be a little bitmore clear, because this one's
confusing.
So similar to how in ananesthesia group there are CAAs

(08:11):
and CRNAs who workinterchangeably delivering
anesthesia.
A patient may say, oh, you weremy anesthetist last time, and
if they're not referring to you,the CAA, they could be
referring to another anesthesiaprovider, like a CRNA, and they
also could be misnomering aphysician anesthesiologist as an

(08:36):
anesthetist.
So a CAA is sometimes ananesthetist in the context that
you were saying the wordanesthetist in reference to a
human being who also identifiesas a CAA.
Now I just want to put a teenycaveat because also this
languaging is just for theUnited States.
I do know that in England inparticular, the United Kingdom

(09:02):
in general, the languaging thereis anesthetist and I do believe
that can sometimes refer to aphysician anesthesia provider,
but that's in the United Kingdomand not here in the United
States, and so here ananesthetist really should refer
to someone who's a non-physiciananesthesia provider.

(09:24):
Okay, hopefully that hascleared up some of the lingo and
some of the acronyms.
Now let me tell you whatspecifically a CAA is, now that
we've covered what we're not.
A CAA a CertifiedAnesthesiologist Assistant is a
master's level anesthesiaprovider that works within the

(09:47):
anesthesia care team model todeliver anesthesia.
So I want to come back to theterm or the idea of anesthesia
care team model here in just alittle bit, because it's a very
important distinguisher for whata CAA is from other types of
anesthesia professionals.
But first I want to give you abetter idea on what specific

(10:10):
responsibilities a CAA has, sothat you know what you're
getting into if you want to dothis.
So a CAA is going to be licensedto do all of these things, but
depending on the hospital andthe anesthesia practice, they
may or may not be doing all ofthese things in the course of a
day or a week.
So we are licensed to collect apatient's health history prior

(10:35):
to the anesthetic andcollaborate on an anesthetic
plan with a physiciananesthesiologist.
We are licensed to induceanesthesia, meaning to start
anesthesia.
We are licensed to maintain apatient's level of anesthesia,
meaning giving more or givingless of all the various drugs

(10:57):
and accessories that can go intodelivering anesthesia.
And we also are responsible forwaking a patient up from
anesthesia.
Now, while the patient's asleep,we are licensed to secure the
patient's airway in a variety ofways.
We are licensed to placeinvasive meaning inside the body

(11:20):
or non-invasive meaning on theexternal, outside of the body
monitoring devices.
So a non-invasive monitoringdevice that we put on very
regularly is a blood pressurecuff, and an invasive monitor
that we put in very regularly iscalled an arterial line and
there are so many other types ofmonitoring devices that we put

(11:44):
on and in patients.
And then, in a big picture way,a certified anesthesiologist
assistant is responsible inmaking decisions for the
patient's physiologic andpharmacologic status, and we're
also responsible fortransitioning the patient's care
into a recovery mode, whetherwe transition into an actual

(12:06):
physical recovery room or anintensive care unit room or some
other place in the hospital.
We are responsible for takingsomeone through the phases of
anesthesia and dropping them offsafely to the next provider who
will be caring for them.
Okay, so now that you know whatwe're responsible for, let me

(12:27):
color in the picture a littlebit more with that anesthesia
care team phrase, because,remember, a CAA is a master's
level anesthesia provider thatworks within the anesthesia care
team model to deliveranesthesia.
And so all of thoseresponsibilities that I just
listed, that we are licensed andcapable and oftentimes do can

(12:51):
only be done at a hospital or afacility or a surgery center or
an operating room location thatis being supervised by a
physician anesthesiologist whois immediately available to
collaborate on care, on theirpatient's anesthesia care.
So let me tell you more plainlyabout what this actually looks

(13:14):
like, for example, in the stateof Missouri and in many states.
One anesthesiologist rememberthat's the medical doctor, the
physician, the physiciananesthesiologist can supervise
up to four non-physiciananesthesia providers, of which
CAAs are one option and anotheroption would be a CRNA.

(13:39):
And that is the instance where,I have said previously, caas
and CRNAs.
Their work looks identical whenboth of those professions are
working within the anesthesiacare team model, which again is
a type of way to deliveranesthesia where one physician,

(14:00):
one physician anesthesiologist,is supervising up to four let's
call it CAAs in four separateoperating room locations or four
separate anesthetizinglocations, and that single
physician is responsible for theanesthesia care that's
delivered in all four of thoselocations, but the actual

(14:23):
anesthesia is delivered by theCAA.
And this model was created tomeet the demands of the medical
community and all of thesurgeries that need to get done
and the fact that there are notenough physician
anesthesiologists to place onephysician anesthesiologist in
each anesthetizing location sothat every human being on planet

(14:48):
earth, or at least in theUnited States, is put to sleep
by a physician.
And so, because that's notpossible, physician
anesthesiologists in the 1960screated this profession, our
profession called certifiedanesthesiologist assistants, to
be an extension of a physicianto be trained, to have a

(15:09):
master's level education todeliver anesthesia while being
supervised by a physiciananesthesiologist.
So hopefully that helps clear upany questions that maybe you've
been too scared to ask.
It is a little confusing.
You're not wrong to sort of notquite understand how all the

(15:30):
moving pieces come together.
If you are prospective AA or ifyou're a friend or family of a
CAA and you're listening to thisbecause they sent it to you.
It is a bit confusing whenyou're not on the inside of it,
because oftentimes people justthe general public only meet
their anesthesia provider eitherright before they become

(15:50):
unconscious or while they'reunconscious, and so you're a
little fuzzy on what's exactlyhappening and who's doing it to
you.
So I hope this is helpful.
I hope this mini-series findsthose people who are interested
in this profession and wantingto learn more.
I'm going to be talking aboutall sorts of other things, like
how much money a CAA normallymakes, where we can work.

(16:11):
If you are practicing CAA andyou feel like I really missed a
point here, let me know.
You can text me or chat me justby hitting the link in the show
notes.
As always, you can follow me onInstagram at AwakendAnesthetist
for more behind the scenes.
You can join myAwakendAnesthetist email
community and receive anewsletter about once a

(16:34):
month-ish, and I want you toknow that.
The number one thing you can doto support this podcast is to
send it right now to anotherprospective AA student or CAA in
your life who you think wouldenjoy this episode.
The more we can one-to-one tellpeople about this podcast, the
further and farther it's goingto go within the CAA community

(16:55):
and extend outwards.
So thank you so much forlistening everyone.
I hope this was helpful.
Let's talk soon.