By Al Rothstein

(Panama City, Fl) - Shane Angus had visions of living near the water, taking him back to his California roots.  But his chosen profession, the Anesthesiologist Assistant, is not licensed to work in his home state.

"I wanted to be in a state where there was an ocean culture," he says.

Things began to fall into place when the legislature for another state known for its ocean culture, Florida, licensed AAs in 2004.  His wife was considering law schools there, making the Sunshine State an ideal choice for the couple.  Shane was well-qualified, having graduated from the AA program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Politics Stood in the Way

But Shane didn't realize the job search would take months.  Even though AAs were licensed, no one had been hired yet, and there was a lot of hesitation among anesthesia groups to do so.  In fact, there was pressure NOT to hire AAs.

ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANTS ARE NOW LICENSED to work in Washington, D.C., surgical facilities. AAs are also licensed to work in nine other states and allowed to practice in six more if facilities or physician anesthesiologists specifically request them. The licensing has been a long time in coming: in 2002, the D.C. Board of Medicine issued AA guidelines; the district's council passed a law creating licensure in 2004; the council wrote the licensure regulations last year; and licensing was finally approved on Tuesday. "We have had a shortage of anesthesia providers for a while," says Frederick Finelli, MD, president of the medical staff of Washington Hospital Center and chairman of the D.C. Board of Medicine. "AAs are helping to alleviate that shortage." Seven AAs now work in the capital.

From Outpatient Surgery (www.outpatientsurgery.net/newsletter), 2-27-06 issue, News and Notes section.

"I was on call Thursday night, April 8th, 2005, when an 18-month old who had been bit in the face by the family dog was brought in," recalls Joe Mihalka, MD, an Anesthesiologist with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "While we were in one room taking care of that patient, a surgeon had another emergency, a two-year old who was bleeding after a tonsillectomy. Since we couldn't leave our room for the anesthesia delivery on the new patient, and since I am allowed to supervise more than one anesthesia delivery, I called in another anesthetist so we could accommodate both patients. If we had not been able to reach anyone, the two-year old might have had to have a transfusion, or could have possibly bled to death."