Reply To: Working in a facility that also uses AAs

[Gabby76]

[Gabby76]

@BeachCRNA, similar experience here. Work in a hospital where they lump AA’s and CRNA’s together, and like you stated the morale is strained. They can try to come up with all the similarities that they would like, but at the end of the day a CRNA is a RN first, with typically 2 to 5 years of Critical Care experience… before they even start CRNA school. An AA could have been a massage therapist 2 years prior, and now is practicing anesthesia (under the supervision of an anesthesiologist, of course)… our knowledge and experience is drastically different. Most of the AA’s I work with are nice people, but inevitably, the work environment is weird at times.