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PAs in anesthesiology


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In a few capacities

 

PA can work in pre-anesthesia doing medical clearance exams

 

But to actually be giving the sedation drugs - not really......

BUT there is an anesthesia assistant - AA

 

Which is utlized in about 1/2 the states I think

 

PAs make great applicants to the two year program -

 

Pay is well above the average PA pay -

Just to throw some #'s around (and I have not researched this as Lo - just guessing)

PA might be 120k year as average

AA might be close to 200k per year for average income

 

 

God awful boring job interspersed with moments of pure terror and panic.......

 

Hate to quote this but here is more info. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesiologist_assistant

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  • Moderator

In a few capacities

 

PA can work in pre-anesthesia doing medical clearance exams

 

But to actually be giving the sedation drugs - not really......

BUT there is an anesthesia assistant - AA

 

Which is utlized in about 1/2 the states I think

 

PAs make great applicants to the two year program -

 

Pay is well above the average PA pay -

Just to throw some #'s around (and I have not researched this as Lo - just guessing)

PA might be 120k year as average

AA might be close to 200k per year for average income

 

 

God awful boring job interspersed with moments of pure terror and panic.......

 

Hate to quote this but here is more info. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesiologist_assistant

They can legally work in 17 states and really only at major academic centers because their has to be a anesthesiologist in the OR suite for them to practice. Way to restricted in my opinion to be a viable job option since there is only so many states you could work in and only so many places in that state that would have the capability to hire you. They average about 130-140.
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They can legally work in 17 states and really only at major academic centers because their has to be a anesthesiologist in the OR suite for them to practice. Way to restricted in my opinion to be a viable job option since there is only so many states you could work in and only so many places in that state that would have the capability to hire you. They average about 130-140.

I know they work in a small community (non-teaching) hospital in SW Vermont

Locally they are closer to 200k

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We had an AA program at my school and we always joked about crossing over to it because once the patient goes to sleep, the anesthesia person can come and go as they see fit.  In CV surgery especially, once bypass is initiated it's nap time, a couple hours at least.  They come wandering back in a couple hours later, still half asleep and face all wrinkled up from the pillow.

 

I knew some of the AA guys; our programs had a couple classes together.   I remember they needed calculus and physics as pre-reqs, and I remember thinking how easy and focused their school was compared to ours.  I don't remember anything about how their job market or pay was.  

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I think it's fair to say it's harder to get into an AA program than a PA program as they require MCAT and several prereqs not required by PA programs and there are far fewer programs.

I can't speak to the difficulty of their curriculum, but these folks definitely are not slackers.

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Yeah, my program (by far the largest in the country) requires 2 semesters of physics with lab, O-chem 1, Biochem, calculus 1, either MCAT or GRE and all the normal stuff like Bio.  also some other red tape like a little paper they make you write and some sort of proof of computer competency.  Makes sense to run them around some, that's a high stakes job.

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