Are Anesthetist Assistant and CNA equivalent of each other? The program at Emory for Anesthetist Assistant says their graduates are equivalent of CNAs, but when I speak to some nurses they say that they are certainly not and hospitals treat the AAs different. Anyone have any insight on this issue?

the training is equivalent but currently AA's as a new profession are only licensed in 15 states last time I checked. the exception is those AA's who first were PA's, they can practice in any state under their pa scope of practice. hope that helps. if you are already an rn, crna is probably the way to go. if not AA is your only option unless you want to go to nursing school first. at that point it might almost make more sense to go the md/do route for the # of years it would take. good luck.