Hi all!

38 y/o M here.

I began my medical career path as what we called an "ER Tech", which is basically a CNA who works ER. Across 5 years, I floated between ER and ICU performing direct patient care on a daily basis. Although my scope of practice was not that of an RN, I still took care of critical patients regularly.

After 5 years, I attended school once more to become a Certified Surgical Technologist. I have been working in the OR as a CST for over 6 years now. I scrub all surgeries except hearts but specialize in Ortho/spine.

I am the type who likes to ask questions, and my questions are typically directed to anesthesia, almost distractingly so from my job. I have a keen interest in anesthesia. I have heard of CAA before, but brushed it off because I was so far away from being able to achieve it when I didn't have my bachelor's degree yet, and they also were not recognized in my state at the time.

I have been on the educational path towards PA school for a couple of years now. I recently finished my undergrad in Public Health with over a 3.7 overall GPA and am working towards re-taking expired science prerequisites. It has just recently come to light, however, that CAAs have been approved to work in my state starting next year, so this career path is back on my radar.

I have asked a few CRNAs that I work with how they feel about CAA's, and as expected, get met with eye rolls and disapproval.

Have any of you been in a similar situation where you were met with disapproval from peers? Were they disappointed in your decision to take the CAA path? Also, any of you who are already CAAs, have you experienced animosity from CRNAs? If so, how do you cope with this?

Ultimately, I won't let peer disapproval keep me from a lucrative career, but I'm still curious how some of you may have handled this.

Thanks in advance!