CRNA's working with AA's

Specialties CRNA

Published

Specializes in Critical Care.

Has any one worked with AA's in an ACT model? How is it? Do MDA's and other health care professionals bunch AA's and CRNA's together? There is a bill in the house of my state to determine if they are going to allow AA's to practice here. I'm nervous this may catch on in other states making it more difficult to find jobs upon graduation.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Has any one worked with AA's in an ACT model? How is it? Do MDA's and other health care professionals bunch AA's and CRNA's together? There is a bill in the house of my state to determine if they are going to allow AA's to practice here. I'm nervous this may catch on in other states making it more difficult to find jobs upon graduation.

The ASA has already stated that one of their goals is to have AAs in every state. AAs do nothing to improve or help access to care. The whole AA concept is nothing but a political tool devised by the ASA to discourage autonomy of CRNAs.

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I just shadowed a crna yesterday at childrens hospital here in Colorado. They opened a AA school here in Denver at University of Colorado but of course not a crna school. Colorado and Utah are very political from what I hear and MD run. half the hospitals here won't even use crnas. Childrens was employing half crnas and half AA's. the AA's from what i understood had very little to no clinical experience after they graduated. Childrens goal was to have half AA and half CRNA. I am going to try and avoid the ACH model. Also, the crna i shadowed said that the crna and AA's were compensated the same. It's totally a way for MD's to keep control over the market and profit...they can bill for supervision of AA's and such.

the one thing we have going for us is we can step out of the hospital model and AA's cannot, at least not yet.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.
Has any one worked with AA's in an ACT model? How is it? Do MDA's and other health care professionals bunch AA's and CRNA's together? There is a bill in the house of my state to determine if they are going to allow AA's to practice here. I'm nervous this may catch on in other states making it more difficult to find jobs upon graduation.

My sure you write to your state representative about this and why the bill should not be passed. This is an ongoing political fight that will probably never end.

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Specializes in Neurosurgical ICU.

I've worked with AA's and I wasn't impressed. Most of them have zero experience with patient care, so trivial things like starting an IV or mixing a bag of pressors can turn into a big fiasco. Although there are no current studies stating they provide inferior anesthesia, I do think they're superfluous and unnecessary to the profession. It also seemed they wouldn't do squat without running it by the MDA first...something I'm not used to doing in my experience.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Just like anyone else, I think it really depends on the person...there are probably some pretty awesome AA's who are great anesthesia providers...however, as has already been mentioned, AA's are not trained to practice independently. So it does kinda stink that they seem to make about the same wage as a CRNA, but don't have the same amount of liability...

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^ they may make the same as a CRNA working in the same ACT practice, but rest assured, they make far less than a CRNA in private practice....

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A little off topic, but how does one go about getting into private practice? Do you set up contracts with various hospitals and other places one can deliver gas? How do you figure out the billing and such? I am interested in private practice and would love to hear more about how the ins and outs of it works? I will be starting NA school in October.

Thanks!

Denver

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Just like anyone else, I think it really depends on the person...there are probably some pretty awesome AA's who are great anesthesia providers...however, as has already been mentioned, AA's are not trained to practice independently. So it does kinda stink that they seem to make about the same wage as a CRNA, but don't have the same amount of liability...

I don't understand what you mean by "but don't have the same amount of liability". The liability would be the same for a CRNA or AA in an ACT practice. Both are still held equally responsible for the care they give to patients, and I would guess that the rates would be close to the same.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't understand what you mean by "but don't have the same amount of liability". The liability would be the same for a CRNA or AA in an ACT practice. Both are still held equally responsible for the care they give to patients, and I would guess that the liability insurance rates would be close to the same.

You're probably right. In an ACT model, the insurance rates would be the same. Actual liability, or accountability, however, I'm assuming would be higher for an independently practicing CRNA as opposed to an AA who has an MD to fall back on.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
You're probably right. In an ACT model, the insurance rates would be the same. Actual liability, or accountability, however, I'm assuming would be higher for an independently practicing CRNA as opposed to an AA who has an MD to fall back on.

Nope, the are the same whether we/CRNAs work in an ACT or practice independently. There has not been shown to be an increased risk for CRNAs working in an ACT model or independently so the insurance rates would be the same. I haven't surveyed every insurance company out there so you will have to take that with some grain of salt.

Anesthesiologists do not make anesthesia any safer simply by being anesthesiologists and being present/supervising. Technology and modern pharmaceuticals have made the biggest impact on safety in anesthesia.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Nope, the liability insurance are the same whether we/CRNAs work in an ACT or practice independently. There has not been shown to be an increased risk for CRNAs working in an ACT model or independently so the insurance rates would be the same. I haven't surveyed every insurance company out there so you will have to take that with some grain of salt.

Anesthesiologists do not make anesthesia any safer simply by being anesthesiologists and being present/supervising. Technology and modern pharmaceuticals have made the biggest impact on safety in anesthesia.

Okay.

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