Awakened Anesthetist

[PROCESS] Embracing Career Transitions ft. Aspiring CAA founder Sarah Whitfield, CAA

• Mary Jeanne, Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant • Season 3 • Episode 47

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Sarah Whitfield is a Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant, full time faculty instructor, blogger, wife, mother and entrepreneur. Sarah's story from her initial veterinary ambitions to her leadership in the anesthesiologist assistant field, illustrates that the road to career satisfaction isn't always a straight line. In this episode we explore the nuances of Sarah's life between clinical practice, teaching, and guiding future CAAs with her mentorship platform, Aspiring CAA.

Sarah's journey is a beacon of inspiration, a reminder that our professional lives can be as dynamic and fulfilling as we dare to make them. 

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Speaker 1:

because, I mean, I'm an expert on the admissions process, but I want to talk about more things than just the admissions process.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Awakened Anesthetist podcast, the first podcast to highlight the CAA experience. I'm your host, mary Jean, and I've been a certified anesthesiologist assistant for close to two decades. Throughout my journey and struggles, I've searched for guidance that includes my unique perspective as a CAA. At one of my lowest points, I decided to turn my passion for storytelling and my belief that the CAA profession is uniquely able to create a life by design into a podcast. If you are a practicing CAA, current AA student or someone who hopes to be one, I encourage you to stick around and experience the power of being in a community filled with voices who sound like yours, sharing experiences you never believed possible. I know you will find yourself here at the Awakened Anesthetist podcast. Welcome in. Hello Awakened Anesthetist listeners. Welcome to the process series. This is the process episode for February 2024, and I'm really excited to introduce Sarah Whitfield, who is my CAA guest this month. Sarah is living and working in Savannah, georgia. She currently works one day a week clinically in a hospital in Savannah and then works the other four days, nine to five, at South University in Savannah as a full-time faculty member. Sarah also is the founder of Aspiring CAA, which is a website that she launched after she realized her passion of mentoring pre-health students, which is something that she's done for years with her alma mater University of Georgia, and she's transitioned into mentoring prospective AA students and offering her expert advice on aspiringcaacom, as well as just basic information about the CAA profession. Sarah sits on the admissions committee for South University in Savannah, so truly she has an insider knowledge on the AA school admissions process, and I know so many prospective AAs out there are really trying to find great resources and when you type in AA school admissions process into Google, oftentimes the information is confusing or by third parties meaning not by people who are CAAs or not by people who are intimately tied into the process. So I really recommend you all going to Aspiringcaacom. That's Sarah's expertise and you're just gonna love all the resources she has to offer there. Sarah as a human being is fascinating. I loved getting to talk with her. We've actually spoke several times previously in 2023. I had wanted to interview Sarah, but she was in process of creating Aspiring CAA and she really wanted to have it live and launched before we had this conversation. So now that everything is live, I'm excited to introduce you to Sarah and let you all get to know her. Sarah graduated from Emory's MSA program in 2018. Again, she practices in Georgia. She works about 40 hours a week and is really happy to have nights and weekends off to spend some quality time with her family and her two young daughters. Our conversation is really going to expand any prospective AA students who are struggling with choosing the CAA profession. Sarah for a long time thought she was gonna go to vet school and in fact, she was accepted into veterinary school and then made a pivot into AA school. She discusses that transition and I really think Sarah's journey is also going to speak with the practicing CAA who is making a big career pivot maybe into teaching, like Sarah has, or away from full-time clinical anesthesia. Sarah really does transitions well and I think her journey is really gonna expand. Any of you listening who are considering your own big transitions With that, let's welcome Sarah to Awaken Dynastatist.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here with you today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm really excited to talk to you as well. Sarah and I met on Instagram at some point in 2023, and she went through a little bit of a rebrand for one of her passion projects and I wanted to talk to her last summer and then she was like let's hold off to 2024. And so I'm excited to share what Sarah is doing right now for the CAA profession. But before we get to any of that, I would love to do a little rapid fire round, if you're game for that, sarah.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Let's do it.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So what did you wanna be when you were a kid?

Speaker 1:

Ooh, I wanted to be a veterinarian from a pretty early age, I would say starting in middle school. I'm certainly into high school and most of my college career too. I'm a veterinarian, loved animals, loved science.

Speaker 2:

Very good, and are you an early to work person, like set up your room and take a 15 minute break, or are you scooting in at the very last minute, like me?

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'm definitely an early to work kind of person.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Definitely early.

Speaker 2:

That's a better person to be.

Speaker 1:

I stress myself out a lot. I would be way too stressed coming in late.

Speaker 2:

I have a couple of cortisol spikes in the beginning of every morning. I'm like why?

Speaker 1:

do?

Speaker 2:

I do this to myself Are you a coffee gal or a tea gal?

Speaker 1:

I'm neither I'm a water gal. I just took an eight ounce glass of water and then I had to work.

Speaker 2:

You were not the only person who I've asked that question to that has said that, so I guess I assume everyone is a big coffee drinker in medicine. But I am wrong. Okay, last one, something fun. What's the best show you've watched lately?

Speaker 1:

Oh, best show I've watched lately. What did I just watch? I just it's not okay. Well, I can think of something, but it's not recently put out, so I like Yellowstone. I just watched, recently watched, yellowstone and I really enjoyed that. I thought that was good. I know I'm a little behind the curve on that, but I definitely thought that was good.

Speaker 2:

You're good. I don't have really subscription channels. When we have visitors, they'll log into theirs and my husband and I will be like, oh, we have Netflix for like a week. But yes, I'm not sure if I would like Yellowstone. It's a little. Is it violent or is it?

Speaker 1:

It certainly can be.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yeah. See I can do a little cortisol spike from running into work late, but I can't watch scary stuff on TV. Okay well, I would love to hear a little bit about your upbringing, your cultural background, sort of what made you you from a young age. Let's start there, sarah.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Well. I did not grow up in a family where I saw any of the medical professions necessarily. So my dad is a airline pilot and my mom was a school teacher. She taught math and science for eighth graders and so growing up, kind of the first eight-ish years of my life I lived in Texas and then, for my dad's airline job, we ended up moving to Georgia. That was more of the hub various company and that way he wouldn't have to commute back and forth to work and I grew up in a culture and environment where higher education was definitely really encouraged and so in my head I kind of always knew I wanted to go to college and I for a long time knew that I wanted to pursue a graduate degree and, yes, definitely was encouraged and supported by my family and by the people who taught me in school and really my broader community.

Speaker 2:

And you wanted to be a vet growing up, so there was somewhere inside of you that kind of always had this predisposition, it sounds like, to some sort of medicine. When did you first hear about the CAA profession in your journey?

Speaker 1:

I first learned about the CAA profession kind of right before my senior year of undergraduate. I kind of honestly it felt like a little bit of a career crisis for me, since I had been on a path to become a veterinarian for so long. Like I said, since middle school, high school, most of undergrad In fact, I was accepted to vet school. I was part of a early acceptance program that they had. The program has since been done with me so it doesn't exist anymore. But when I went to the University of Georgia after my first semester, I applied to the early acceptance program and was accepted, and so as long as I maintained a certain GPA and got a certain amount of animal care experience, then I had a seat and so I was meeting those requirements. And right before senior year I kind of started to doubt whether being a veterinarian was going to be the right thing for me, and so I Started talking to people. I figured that was the best way to figure out what I wanted to do and I ended up talking to one of my close friends, mothers. She was a pharmaceutical representative and so I thought well, you know, that's kind of peripherally related to medicine and you know, maybe I would like that aspect. And I talked to her and she said you know, based off your personality, I think you would make a really good anesthesiologist assistant. She said I have a niece who's an AA, and why don't I put you in contact with her? And so I kind of filed that conversation in the back of my mind. And then, a couple weeks later, I was at a health profession career fair at the University of Georgia and I was going to all the booths, or you know, pa, med school and then I came to the AA booth from Emery and I thought, oh wait, this rings a bell. I think this is the profession that my friend's mom was telling me about. So I started speaking with the admissions Representative and from there, just kind of little fire under me, I started shadowing and I realized that that's what I really wanted to do.

Speaker 2:

Hmm, so did the, the dream or the? I mean, you walked away from a seat in a vet school, and I live very close to one of the largest vet schools. A lot of vets kind of come out of my Midwest area and that's really hard to get into. It's like medical school, right, or even more so, because there's not as many. It is and you walked away.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it is very, very challenging to get into veterinarian school. It was a really hard decision for me to walk away and you know, if earlier I made it sound like it was a quick decision, it honestly wasn't. I think it took me Months to finally get to the point where I said, okay, I'm, I'm fine with changing my mind because with my personality type and, honestly, I think with a lot of people's personality types who want to go into something medically related, we don't want to be seen as a quitter for me. I have told so many people for so long that I was gonna go to vet school that when suddenly I Realized that that might not be the right path for me, I didn't even voice that immediately. That was just kind of internalized for me Until I thought you know, I, just I. This is a big decision that's gonna affect really the rest of my life and I can't make this decision based off what other people are gonna think. And honestly, I realized that People didn't really care and when I say they don't care I don't mean in the sense that they didn't care about me, but they didn't care that I decided to change my mind. They didn't see me pivoting in my career choice as failure and my perspective now is that that is absolutely not failure and honestly, this has been one of the biggest yeah talking points I've connected with so many potential CIA's over. They've told me, you know, I've been wanting to go to med school for so long. My parents really want me to go to med school, or they really want me to go to dental school or, you know, fill in the blank with some sort of other medical profession and they say, but you know, I now I found a, a. You know, my family doesn't really know what it is, my parents don't really understand, and I can connect with them over that because I have lived through that and I know what that Internalized pressure can feel like, and so I love to be able to say, hey, it's absolutely not failure if you decide to change your mind. I think it's good when you really reflect on what you want to do with your life, because ultimately you want to do something that you are gifted in and something that You're gonna find fulfilling.

Speaker 2:

Mmm, do you remember? I'm just. I just think that is such a valuable experience to hear if you're on the other side of these microphones and listening and sort of struggling with Transitioning from what you thought you were going to be to what maybe you're really truly supposed to be and what your soul is calling you to do. Was there a moment where you're like, oh, I just have peace around it and this is what I'm supposed to be, or did you have to kind of start it Sort of almost sure but not quite sure, like tell me about that transition moment, how that played out for you.

Speaker 1:

I was sure. I got to a point where I was sure about the decision. Really, I became sure after I shadowed. I said, okay, I definitely want to do anesthesia, I'm comfortable no longer pursuing vet school. What I did not immediately feel at peace about was Telling everybody else in my life that decision. That felt a little scarier for me because I did not know what the response was going to be. But but once I actually started that process of telling people and you know, telling my parents, telling my friends, telling my academic advisor that okay, actually I do want to be an AA it became easier the more I did it and then I became more confident and more bold in that decision. So I think if you know what you want to do, yeah, you just have to start taking action. And then that feeling of peace and confidence comes as you continue to take action. I don't, at least for me it didn't all happen simultaneously.

Speaker 2:

I'm reminded of a podcast interview I did with an international CAA who's now graduated. His name was, or is building and he had the similar Struggle telling his parents that he wasn't gonna go to medical school. He came over here from Shanghai and, you know, thought he was gonna do this either deep research path or medical school and then pivoted to AA and his parents were like whoa, whoa, wait a minute, we've done this huge thing, we've sent you to the United States and, and you know just all of the hurdles he had to jump through, and so it was very Interesting. If anyone wants to go back and listen to that episode, I'll put in the show notes Just his journey, making peace with his parents and picking it, and then, as you said, like slowly over time, people get more on board, especially if they see that you're deeply fulfilled with the decision. Yeah, thank you. I just think that's really interesting to hear that thought process play out and I don't think a lot of people share that. So I appreciate you sharing doors. Um, you had said previously when we spoke last year, I thought this was so interesting. I wanted to dive into a little bit more that, even though you had a lot of peace with wanting to be a CAA, that you do believe that we are all right for multiple careers, meaning that someone who's looking into AA school might also be right for a different career. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you meant with that statement, sure?

Speaker 1:

I think that there are multiple career paths that can be fulfilling and can be done well by the same person. I have certain gifts, I have certain skills and I think I could go out and do multiple jobs well. At least with my personality, I think I could be happy doing multiple jobs. I just really want to. What it comes down to is I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to find the exact right job. Really, I think we put this pressure on ourselves really early. If I relate it back to my story, I put this pressure on myself to know what I wanted to do and go into vet school. That's the one thing that's going to make me happy. That's the one thing that I'm going to be good at and that's going to make me feel fulfilled. I really had to learn that it's okay to look at other options because there really might be multiple things that I'm well equipped to do. Once I started having some hesitation about going to vet school, my first instinct was to push through. Well, no, vet school is what I'm supposed to do. Even if there are some things that might be these little red flags for me, I have to push through. Then I had to realize no, it's okay to look around and see what else could I be happy doing, what else am I well equipped to do? Once I had that realization, that's when I allowed myself to explore other careers and that's when I allowed myself to pivot, and that's when I allowed myself to apply to AA school.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just think there's so much wisdom in that acceptance that it's not like it's kind of like finding true love. There's like this pretend narrative that there's just this one person for you and it's going to be this big, beautiful, fireworks soulmate experience. Sure, maybe there's a little bit of that, but then there's a lot of logistics that go into a career decision and the longevity of having one career and it's that career for the rest of your life. I believe that's becoming less and less the ideal. That's maybe not even what people want anymore. They want to be able to have a really fulfilling career that maybe allows them to explore other things in their dynamic, passionate life. I just think it's interesting from when I applied 15 years ago Wait, I keep saying that, but it's really like 18 years ago I applied. I've been a CAA for 16 years and I can see that change where in my mind I thought it's this or nothing. I'm going to be this for 40 years and then I'm going to retire and then I'm going to die. As a CAA I thought even I would stay at one hospital for my whole life and I just think the modern AA student is like no, that's not what I want.

Speaker 1:

I think the CAA profession is unique in that you can have a fulfilling career and your career can set you up to have passions and interests outside of your job. I really love the platform you create to allow CAAs to share that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, thank you. Yes, I believe strongly the CAA profession is uniquely able to do just that. I think I want to bring us back to because I could talk about that for a very long time, but I want to bring us back to your specific journey because I just think you have a really unique journey and then now what you've launched with aspiring CAA you have a unique skill set to help prospective AA students. I want to have you share a little bit on what AA school was like for you, especially since it was a career pivot, what it felt like to finally fall into profession that fit a little bit better.

Speaker 1:

CAA school for me was great and challenging all at the same time. One of the biggest factors for me was just a logistical kind of hardship. I was married when I started AA school and my husband was still finishing undergrad at the University of Georgia when I started anesthesia school at Emory. We ended up living halfway between Athens and Atlanta. Two days a week he would go to Athens to go to class, but then he was working in Atlanta for three days a week. We both had long drives in the morning and certainly in the afternoons with heavy Atlanta traffic. I just was either in the car or I was studying. It was a lot. My life really felt like it was anesthesia school, but while I was there I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed learning about physiology. I loved learning about pharmacology. I really enjoyed being in the hospital and actually getting to take care of patients. One thing I really love is airway management. I love getting my hands on all the intubating equipment and that kind of thing. When I think back about my time in AA school, it was definitely a time where I feel like I worked really, really hard and it was very tiring. But I'm so glad I did it. I have zero regret and I'm very thankful that I went through it.

Speaker 2:

What was your first job experience? Did you come out and have multiple job offers?

Speaker 1:

I accepted a job very early on in school. I signed as a first year student. Oh my Wow I know it was towards the end of my first year I signed. I had been there for three months At that time. We did three month rotations during our first year. I loved it. I felt like I fit in with the culture of the group. I liked the caseload. I really really liked the team aspect of the anesthesiologist and anesthetist. I felt like even compared to just the few other hospitals I had rotated through my first year, I felt like it was very unique. I thought the anesthesiologists were really phenomenal. I loved all the other anesthetists there. I was comfortable signing early on in my first year. Honestly, it was great because then I got to rotate there again as a second year student right before I graduated. It was kind of like an extra orientation session for me Day one when I was not a student anymore. They were like all right, you're good, you have a room assignment on day one, you don't need an orientation. That was kind of fun. I took call, I was on the call team and I was working well over 40 hours a week At that time in my life. That was fine because that's what I wanted to be doing At that time. I did not have any children yet. I was wanting to pay off my student loans. I was like, oh yeah, yeah, I'll pick up the extra shifts. I'm happy to do that. Now I have two children and I don't quite want to work that much. But I'm glad I did, because I aggressively paid off my student loans.

Speaker 2:

Do you mind sharing how much student loans you had and how long it took you to pay them off?

Speaker 1:

I think my situation was a little bit unique because I did have financial support from family members and from my husband. I took out $50,000, which I recognized that it can certainly be a lot more than that for some people With support from family and from my husband. Thankfully, I was able to keep that at the lower end of things.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that is a gift and yeah, I think, regardless of how much student loans you have, the CAA profession allows you, if you want to have a focus right when you get out of school, to kind of make as much money as you can and pay down those student loans. The ratio of debt to income is such that it's actually possible you don't have to have debt for two decades unless that's your financial plan. Yes, so thanks for sharing that. Talk to me about where you are now because it's not at that hospital, and about that transition and how you knew it was the right time to leave this. It sounds like really good fit of a first job.

Speaker 1:

Yes. So really the biggest factor? Well, actually it was really a few factors. Number one I started having kids. That was really a big one for me. I was pregnant with my first child, kind of right as COVID started to hit, and I was thinking about how I was going to ask my current job to restructure my schedule and maybe if I could go from full-time call to maybe either full-time or maybe even part-time. It just worked a couple days a week so that was kind of in the back of my mind during the time I was expecting my first. And the other aspect for me was I really kind of wanted to get out of the Atlanta area, not because I don't like Atlanta, it was really mainly because of the traffic. So I lived about two miles away from the hospital that I worked at and in the mornings, when I'm leaving my house at 6 am, it took seven minutes to get to the hospital. If I left at 4 or 5 or 6 o'clock it took more like 45 minutes plus and that was oh my, I know it was very frustrating for me and I just kind of thought I don't want this the rest of my life. We don't want to be in the car this much of the day, and especially as I was thinking anticipating the birth of my child, I knew that that would be especially frustrating for me. So at that point I was like, well you know, maybe I do need to think, not just about asking my current job for a change in schedule. Maybe I can start looking outside of the Atlanta area. And that's when I saw the job posting for the full-time faculty position in Savannah and I thought, oh well, this gets me out of Atlanta. You know, it keeps me still relatively close to my family, because I like being within driving distance to my family. So I thought I'd get to stay in the southeast. And then I had been precepting Emory students for the last couple of years at my job and I realized I loved teaching, I loved interacting with students in the operating room and I figured I could translate that pretty well into a more formal didactic setting. And so all three of those factors kind of lined up where I was looking for just more regular hours and I was looking to expand my job search outside of Atlanta and I was excited about the idea of potentially teaching. And so all three of those things kind of lined up perfectly and allowed me to transition from my first job, which was full-time you know call clinical to a full-time faculty role. And I will say, even in my full-time faculty role I do still get to practice clinically. So I have one day a week that is dedicated to being at the hospital. So thankfully, I still get to work clinically. That's very important to me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, a nice little mix there, but full-time like. Your main work is as a faculty instructor at South University in Savannah.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, that's correct. So four days a week I am teaching and then one day a week I am in the hospital, and usually I have one of our students assigned to my room, so I get to precept our students, which is so fun. I love getting to see them in the hospital and at school.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that does sound fun. I have a little question for CAAs, listening who might be like wait a minute. How do I find these job postings for, you know, faculty instructors, or where did you see that? Where can we go to see our options?

Speaker 1:

I saw the job posting in a Facebook group that is exclusively for CAA employment, although I'm sure that the job was cross-posted on other search engines, but I do specifically remember that that's the first place that I saw it.

Speaker 2:

Well, because I'm thinking because you don't really go to LinkedIn or whatever other ones there are to find an AA job. Really, I mean, maybe we do, now I'm not sure that's not the way. I mean, you know you're not going to go to the big websites like bagmaskcom or Gasworks, you know what I mean. Like, it just feels like a different situation and those sites don't post faculty positions. So, okay, facebook group people and, I think, just connections probably, and maybe LinkedIn. Maybe we'll all look into it and put it in the show notes. But yeah, I was just like wait a minute, how did you know about this job?

Speaker 1:

Yes, a little bit of a unique way I found out about it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, interesting. Talk to me a little bit about the development of aspiring CAA. We've kind of teased it a little bit. You want it to be and do in the world, and how it came to be.

Speaker 1:

I really grew from me realizing that there is a need for easily accessible and reliable admissions information for prospective CAA students. And if I kind of go into the backstory a little bit, I am pretty active in the Alumni Mentorship Program at my alma mater at the University of Georgia and I have been for four or five years now and I go online, I fill out a profile and on the profile I say that I am a CAA, and so I had a lot of people requesting to pair up with me as a mentor or a mentee relationship who were interested either in medicine in general or specifically in being a CAA. And as I and we'd be assigned to each other for about a three month period and as I would build that relationship and talk to more people over time, I noticed recurring themes, recurring questions, recurring concerns, and while I'm certainly happy to speak on an individual basis with people about those things and in fact I love doing that I also realized that if these few people who I've been talking to over the last few years have these questions, a lot of other people probably do as well, and if I can create a centralized place where people can go and find this information at a time and place that's convenient for them. Then not only can I grow my profession that I love so much, I can also maybe meet people at a place where they just need a little bit of guidance. Because when I think back about my journey and about my process of discerning what I wanted to do career-wise and I remember how stressful that was for me I think it would have been helpful to have a resource like that where I can go and learn about a profession that might not have a lot of other resources out there For me. I was out there reading online forums that were anonymous and I did not know who was giving me advice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, totally. I mean, the game has changed so dramatically and I do feel like there is this hunger, this need for more pointed information from experts, meaning from the CAAs out there sharing their own personal experience and then also taking people behind the scenes of the admissions process and how to know if you fit as a CAA. So, yes, I know what you're doing is so needed. What type of prospective AAS students you think would benefit from the information on aspiring CAA? Is there a certain profile or type of question if you have in your mind that you're like, okay, aspiring CAA is the place to go?

Speaker 1:

I strive to hit a pretty broad range here, so I like to be able to address baseline questions like what is a CAA? Am I a good fit for a CAA? So I, number one, strive to educate about the profession so people can know if it's what they want to do. At the same time, I also have a goal of having aspiring CAA be a trusted resource for very technical questions about the application process. For example, I recently published an article about exactly how CASA calculates GPAs. And, by the way, casa is the centralized application service for anesthesiologist assistants, which is the application portal and software that every CAA program uses in the country. So if you're going to apply to CAA school, you have to go through CASA. And when I tell people that CASA calculates their GPA a certain way, it might be different than how your undergrad calculated it. They have their own rules, they have their own way of doing it and they break down a lot of different types of GPA. So they calculate not only overall GPA, but the admissions committee will see your science GPA, they'll see your prerequisite GPA. They'll see your post-bac GPA if you happen to take post-bac courses. So I want the website to answer technical questions like that. That might be a little bit hard to find answers to in other places. So I really want aspiring CAA to cater to people who are just learning about the profession and want to know more about it, while at the same time helping people with very specific questions along the application journey.

Speaker 2:

Gosh, that is so valuable and I'm hearing you're synthesizing your passion for mentorship that you kind of have practiced for years through your University of Georgia mentorship program and then also your expertise because you sit on the admissions committee correct at South. Yes, Okay, and that's how you kind of understand what, how this all works, like the behind the scenes mechanics of it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly, I kind of have that behind the scenes view of how admissions are done, and then I also have engaged with a lot of prospective CAA students, so I know the kinds of questions they ask. And I will say, one of the biggest ways that I get new ideas for blog articles to write and resources to create and content to come up with is through my community. When I noticed that I am repeatedly asked the same question, that tells me that I need to write something about it because a lot of other people have that same question and then that way it could be easily searchable online. If somebody were to. You know, just do a simple Google search.

Speaker 2:

And you're doing this alongside your faculty work at South University and your one day a week clinical job. And then you're doing this when personally question when are you have?

Speaker 1:

time to do this? That is a good question. Usually I do it at night after my kids go to bed. So a couple of nights a week I'll either work on writing an article, or work on updating my website, or work on, you know, sending out an email to any of my subscribers and letting them know of any additional resources that I've added to the website.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I kind of want to highlight and hold you up because, you know, in talking to you and in talking to other people who are sort of doing new things within the CA profession and getting the word out, I don't know, maybe people don't realize that no one's getting paid for this, and I don't think it's that we couldn't get paid or maybe we don't want to get paid. But it's kind of that like moving first the snowball that like it takes a lot of energy, and people like you who are really doing the hard work, that when whoever is looking for information types in Google, there's not that much that comes up. And you know, aspiring CA is going to be one of those resources that comes up and it's only possible because you're, after all, your full-time work is done have this passion to help and to spread the message of the CA profession. And so I kind of want to show my own gratitude for you because that allows people like me who are interested in sort of sharing this adjacent message of how powerful the profession is. It allows me to say to people who come to me with a bunch of questions that maybe I'm not an expert at answering. I'm like how about I show you aspiring CA and it just it's really a synergy. I think that is starting to happen within our community. That's really exciting. It's exciting to be at the beginning process of that with you so Well, thank you for your support.

Speaker 1:

I really appreciate that yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yes, totally. I mean, it's amazing stuff. I just I'm really proud, honestly, a lot of the people I've had on the podcast. I'm really proud to tell anyone who asked me a question like, hey, this is the expert, this is who you should go to. I kind of wanted to talk to you about what's next, not because I think there has to be some sort of more and more and more, bigger, bigger, bigger. Let's grow this thing. I'm mostly interested in where you feel like your life is headed because of the support of the CA profession, if there's any sort of goals or dreams or things that you're moving towards, or if you feel like I'm there, I've made it. I'm just kind of living it right now no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

I think I really hold both of those in tension. Like there's this tension between those two sides for me because, in one sense, I'm so proud of what I have done I'm proud of graduating from an AA program, I'm proud of the two little girls that I'm working so hard to raise and I work on contentment, like I actively work on being a thankful person and expressing gratitude and at the same time, it is true, I do try to look forward and think how could I better myself, how could I better my family, how could I grow the AA profession? So, yes, I think there are things on the horizon for me. I really don't want aspiring CAA to be a static website. I have ideas for growing it, for adding content to it, Because I'm an expert on admissions process, but I want to talk about more things than just the admissions process. For example, I have some things lined up specifically. I'm working to collaborate with some other AAs who have some additional expertise outside of specifically the admissions process so I can add more information to the website just about the AA profession. So as people are deciding if it's the right path for them, they'll have a little bit more information there to make their decision and then personally for me in terms of where I see my life growing and how I want to go. I mean, I'm happy with where I am. I love teaching, I love seeing people learn, the whole anesthesia process. I think that being an AA allows me to have the bandwidth to still pursue my passions outside of, maybe, a strict career perspective. So, yes, I do my 9 to 5 job four days a week and then my 6 AM to 3 PM job the other day a week, the clinical day, but then I do get to do what I love in the evenings. I get to talk to prospective CAA students and I get to help them at a time where I can relate so deeply with what they're going through. So yeah, really in summary, I'm content with where I am but plan to still continue growing aspiring CAA website, continue to work on being the best instructor that I can be for my AA students and continue to grow the profession as a whole.

Speaker 2:

I can just feel your passion and your dedication to the CAA profession through the screen. I'm just so grateful to have you as a colleague, really. Yeah, so thank you. How would a prospective AA contact you? What's the best way to track you down or to connect with you?

Speaker 1:

I am active on LinkedIn, so you're always welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message there. Also, on my website, I have a little contact tab on the menu and you can send me a message through the website and I will respond via email. So I would say email through the website or through LinkedIn are really the best two ways to get in contact with me and I really am very responsive. It's one of the reasons why I love doing the aspiring CAA website is because I love hearing from people, so absolutely I invite you to connect with me, send me your questions. If I see the same question popping up, it'll get a permanent spot as a blog article.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it's fun when I respond personally to someone's question or as you're doing the same thing, they're like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for responding. Like there would be someone else behind the scenes. Or we've got a team of people Like, no, just me over here email you. Yeah, it's literally just me On LinkedIn. I don't know how many people are familiar with that. Are we looking for aspiring CAA? That's what we'd put in the search bar on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1:

Right now it's my personal profile so you can just search Sarah Whitfield. But you'll see in my little description it will say aspiring CAA. So that's how you would know it's me.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful, ok, sarah, I'm so grateful that you said yes to coming on the podcast and I would love to direct all of my frequently asked difficult admissions questions to aspiring CAA. And Sarah and I actually have a little collaboration that will be coming out during CAA week, which is just upcoming here, if you're listening in real time. So be looking out for that and yeah, I just I hope to stay connected with you, sarah, and kind of watch you grow and be cheering you on. Likewise, thank you so much for having me. Wasn't that so good to hear Sarah, her passion and her inspiration for aspiring CAA and for really expanding the CAA profession in her own unique way. I just I don't know. I just really connected with Sarah and just that inspired movement that she's creating within the CAA profession. So if you enjoyed this episode and want to hear a little bit more from Sarah, keep your eyes and ears on your podcast player wherever you're listening to me now, because next week is CAA week 2024. I believe it begins Monday, february 19th. Hopefully I remember that day correctly. I'll go back and edit it if it's wrong and Sarah and I did a little collaboration for prospective AA students who are interested in hearing more specific details about the AA school admissions process, but it's also really going to inform practicing CAAs or AA students who are fielding a lot of questions from people who are interested in our profession. Sarah really has an expertise in that exact area and I know that I certainly get asked a lot of questions and I could feel that I didn't have the best answer because I did everything in terms of the admissions process 18 years ago. So it was really nice to collaborate with Sarah and lean on her and sort of gather resources, and we will be launching that next week on Monday during CAA week, so everyone has that to look forward to. If you want to stay in contact with me, you can follow me on Instagram at Awaken Anesthetist. I do respond to all my messages and I'm on there fairly often, so it's probably the easiest way to get a hold of me. Something you can do if you love this podcast or love the CAA profession and want to continue helping us expand, is to share this podcast episode with a friend or an AA student or another CAA colleague in your life. Tell them why you loved the episode and why you think that they will love it too. That really goes so far in terms of spreading the message that's so important to me and I know so many of you. I also have a monthly newsletter you can sign up for. There's a link in the show notes, and if you're a subscriber of that newsletter, you're also gonna receive the updates for Making Connections, which is a new connections group that I've created specifically for CAAs or active AA students. It's a way for us to connect and deeply listen to each other, learning more about ourselves in the process. We've already had one session and it was really deeply meaningful and I'm excited to offer this free monthly group to any CAA or SAA who's interested. You can always DM me on Instagram if you have questions or email me my email's also in the show notes. If you're already subscribed to my newsletter, you've likely received some emails about Making Connections and if this sounds interesting and something you wanna hear a little bit more about, go to the show notes, subscribe to the Awaken NSS newsletter and when you do that, you can let me know where you are in your CAA journey, whether you're a student, whether you're already practicing and whether you're specifically interested in making connections. Thank you so much for listening. Happy CAA week upcoming and let's talk soon. Woohoo. What do you think?

Speaker 1:

I enjoyed it. It was more low key than I thought. Like I kind of got into it and was like okay, yeah, this doesn't have to be stressful.

Speaker 2:

Yes totally.

People on this episode

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Mary Jeanne Roberts, CAA

Host