I am a student who just completed her undergrad in pre-med. Now that I am finished with the coursework, I am realizing that I don't want to go the medical school route and be in school/residency/etc for another 7-10 years. A friend of mine suggested my becoming an anesthesiology assistant, and I have really been enticed by what I have read thus far on the subject. I guess I was just looking for some direction from current students about the level of career satisfaction and respect they receive in their position. In addition, is it the type of choice that people make straight out of undergrad, when they are changing careers later in life...? The one deterrant seems to be that I would not be able to practice in all 50 states - that really sucks.
Disclaimer: I am not an AA. Anesthesiologist Assistants is a growing field. The anesthesiologists will love and respect you as long as you work hard and know your stuff, and it will be extremely easy for you to find a job. I'm pretty sure that AA is a lot like PA people where they are deciding to apply to medical school but eventually decide against it. However, they still want to be working in healthcare using the premed classes they built up in undergrad and the [X]Assistant graduate programs fit the bill. Don't worry about the state licenses. More legislation is being worked through on a continual basis to open up more states to AA practice. The goal is to get AAs licensed in all 50 states, so the field is only going to get bigger and better.
Current students in all five programs are split between those who are looking at it as a 2nd career and those who come straight out of school. I've been in it 28 years and have no regrets. AA's work in a wide variety of anesthesia care team practices - small-town hospitals to big-city tertiary referall hospitals. They do big cases and small cases, from 2 minute ear tubes on healthy babies to heads and hearts on the sickest patients you can imagine. AA's are well-respected in their practices, and the demand is increasing, even as the number of graduates increases each year. Although states are added slowly, the number is increasing each year, with 5-6 new states in the last five years. PM me if you want more info.
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