Anesthesia Assistant ANA

Holland Code: I (Investigative)

What academic skills do I need to be successful in the program?

Please see the website for details.

What personal qualities should someone interested in this career have?

• Able to make decisions quickly & confidently
• Ability to act quickly and assertively in crisies
• Ability to adapt to changing environment
• Mechanical aptitude (you will be working with sophisticated equipment)
• Fine motor skills and manual dexterity
• Ability to work in a professional & regulated environment
• Ability to analyze situations and create solutions based on theoretical knowledge
• Active listening
• Excellent verbal communicator
• Able to provide explanations and directions to patients
• Enjoy fostering positive relationships
• Ability to work in a team
• Enjoy working with and caring for people
• Desire to work with sick and vulnerable people of all ages
• Self-motivated, committed to lifelong learning

What kind of work could I do when I graduate?

Graduates of this program may go on to become an:

Anesthesia Assistant.

Places you may find yourself employed include

Hospitals - primarily in the operating room but also in such areas as post-operative care areas, labour and delivery, emergency, and intensive care.

Typical working conditions for this kind of work:

• May work all shifts and may work weekends and holidays
• May work on-call
• Lifting (up to 10 kilograms) may be required; may routinely help to lift immobile patients
• May experience high levels of stress
• Exposure to blood & bodily fluids, infectious environments

Tasks a graduate may do in the workplace

• Provide airway management interventions including tracheal intubation, fibre optics, or ventilatory support.
• Respond to emergencies by providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), or pediatric advanced life support (PALS).
• Verify availability of operating room supplies, medications, and gases.
• Pretest and calibrate anesthesia delivery systems and monitors.
• Participate in seminars, workshops, or other professional activities to keep abreast of developments in anesthesiology.
• Control anesthesia levels during procedures.
• Assist anesthesiologists in the monitoring of patients including electrocardiogram (EKG), direct arterial pressure, central venous pressure, arterial blood gas, hematocrit, or routine measurement of temperature, respiration, blood pressure, and heart rate.
• Assist anesthesiologists in the administration of blood, blood products, or supportive fluids.
• Collect and document patients' pre-anesthetic health histories.
• Assist in the provision of advanced life support techniques including those procedures using high-frequency ventilation or intra-arterial cardiovascular assistance devices

Helpful links for further research into this Fanshawe College program and career opportunity

• Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada (ORNAC)
• Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society
• What is an Anesthesia Assistant? (from the Canadian Anesthesiologists website)
• Fanshawe’s library has prepared a subject guide for current students in this program. You may find the links and information provided very useful in learning more about this career.

Last Modified: January 11, 2024