CHCS - Perspectives Summer/Fall 2017

18 Nova Southeastern University Anesthesiologist Assistant Fort Lauderdale Spearheading the Profession: NSU Anesthesiologist Assistants By Mansour Dagher, M.H.Sc. , CAA, Assistant Professor LET’S FACE IT. The anesthesiologist assistant profession is not well known. Whenever an introduction is in order, many practicing certified anesthesiologist assistants (CAAs) sometimes find themselves explaining the role of a CAA in the health field, generally, and the Anesthesia Care Team model, specifically. The profession’s lack of exposure is not due to its newness. As a matter of fact, CAAs have been practicing since the late 1960s, when the profession emerged due to the lack of anesthesia providers starting in the middle of that decade. Emory University opened the first anesthesiologist assistant program in 1969, followed by Case Western Reserve University in 1970. The NSU Fort Lauderdale program started in 2005, with the Tampa program following in 2009. Since the matriculation and graduation of the first class, Florida shifted from having no practicing CAAs to currently being the second-most populous state, with almost 400 CAAs practicing from Miami to Tallahassee—and everywhere in between. NSU CAAs are true pioneers because, as students, they initially exposed the Florida medical community to the profession via multiple rotations throughout the state, and continually proving their pivotal role as practicing clinicians in the medical field. Since the inception of the NSU Fort Lauderdale and Tampa AA programs, the goal was to graduate CAAs who are distin- guished and unique from other AA schools. The didactic and clinical portions of the program are phenomenal, allowing NSU CAAs to acquire the knowledge, tools, and skills to practice as outstanding anesthesia providers. More important, however, NSU CAAs attain an additional layer of aptitude that includes professionalism and leadership. Two NSU alumni who embody these two differentiators are 2012 alumnus Jonathan Swink, M.H.Sc. , CAA, and 2010 alumnus Ron Couto, M.H.Sc. , CAA. Prior to attending NSU, Swink had a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. Shortly after starting the AA program, he quickly became a leader in his class, which culminated in his election as class president. When he started his various clinical rotations, pediatric anesthesia was not particularly interesting to Swink. As a matter of fact, he was not excited about his rotation at Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C. Nevertheless, after completing that rotation, Swink realized pediatric anesthesia was his calling, and he was offered a position by CNMC months before his graduation date. Thanks to his knowledge and professionalism, Swink quickly distin- guished himself as a top-tier anesthesia provider. Up to that point, cardiovascular anesthesia at CNMC was limited to physician anesthesiologists and anesthesiology fellows.