Summer Check-in + 2 Announcements!

During this mid summer break check-in I announce the launch of CAA Matters, the first comprehensive professional development and wellness curriculum designed specifically for the Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant profession. After years of development, I'm piloting the program with 4 NSU AA programs and expanding offerings to both AA programs and Pre-Anesthesiologist Assistant students.

In this episode:

• Discovering almost no research or resources existed for CAA wellness
• Teaching a pilot program to four NSU AA programs starting in July
• Received over 100 applications for just three Pre-AA paid internship positions
• Enrolling now for a special version of CAA Matters specifically for the Pre-AA community

If you're an AA educator or program leader interested in bringing CAA Matters to your AA students, or if you're a Pre-AA student wanting to join the program, check the show notes for sign-up links or email awakenanesthetist@gmail.com for more information.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Summer Update and Video Podcast Plans
• 5:27 Creating CAA Matters: Filling a Gap
• 9:17 Offering CAA Matters to AA Programs
• 11:37 Pre-AA Internship Success Story
• 14:27 New Course Offering for Pre-AAs
• 16:57 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:47

Hello and welcome to AwakendAnestes podcast. While on summer break, I'm your host, mary Jean. I am a longtime certified anesthesiologist assistant. I am the host of AwakendAnestes podcast, the creator of CAA Matters, the first and currently only comprehensive professional development and wellness curriculum designed for AA students to be delivered in AA programs. I'm also a wife, a mom, I'm a meditator and probably some other things that I have forgotten to share, but I am here because I have an exciting offer that I thought would be worth coming on the podcast and sharing a little bit more about, as well as maybe a little summer check-in as well, as I am diving into video podcasting. So I am figuring out how to edit a video podcast and have it match up with the audio podcast, which has always been the part that's really kept me from doing it, because I thought I had to edit the audio file twice. But I'm pretty sure I have figured it out, and so this is going to function as a test run as much as it is me kind of checking in with you all. So I hope your summer is going well.

Speaker 1: 3:08

I have three school-aged children an 11-year-old boy and two girls who are nine and seven. They are in their final few days of summer school for the girls, and then we have my 11-year-old boy in a whole bunch of camps. So I'm actually home right now alone. I have just interviewed one of my process guests whose episode will come out in season five of Awaken S's podcast, which starts in the fall of 2025. So it really doesn't launch until end of September 2025. And then her process episode is going to come out in November, but she has an impending due date with child that. We wanted to be sure that she had her interview recorded before her brain goes a little foggy, so I'm coming off of that. I am also a couple weeks really a week and a half before the first pilot program launches of CAA Matters. That's the professional development and wellness curriculum that I have created for AA schools. I am offering it, I'm teaching it, to four of the NSU schools, so all four campuses besides the Denver location, so that's NSU Tampa, nsu Orlando, nsu Jacksonville and NSU Fort Lauderdale AA programs, and I am really, really excited to get to do that.

Speaker 1: 4:32

Finally, this is something I've been thinking about and wanting to do and talking about for years and years. I actually taught wellness as a lecture series at the UMKC MSA program when I was on adjunct faculty. There I taught many things, but my last several years at UMKC was teaching wellness as I was entering my own phase of trying to become more well and really escape that impending burnout that I felt coming as a full-time CAA, long-time CAA. At that point it was in for like 12 years and I just fell in love with the type of learning that can happen in a small environment like in an AA program. I also, frankly, was pissed when I saw that there were no wellness resources designed for certified anesthesiologist assistants or students or any level of us. I have a stack of research that's like this high and now I can show you because we're on video podcast and there's one single sheet of paper like front and back that mentions CAAs. It was actually a study on burnout with CAAs and that's it. There is no mention of us in any of the copious wellness research, all of the research that was done on substance use disorders and anesthesia, which is a prevalent problem we're actually the number one medical profession that struggles with substance use disorders and I could go on and on, but it just got me. Frankly, you know I was mad, I was embarrassed, I felt like why does no one care about us, like, why have we been left out? Why are there no CAAs who are doing research or trying to learn more about maybe our unique struggles or maybe our unique you know, the things that make us more resilient, perhaps to burnout Like we don't know anything about us because no one's ever looked and so and I decided that that was probably or.

Speaker 1: 6:33

At the time I thought, hey, this feels like something I'm meant to do. This feels like my next iteration of my career. At the same time, I was thinking of coming down from full-time work and looking to work part-time and looking to invite in some other aspects of what it means to be a CAA. And fast forward six years. That was really starting in 2019. Fast forward six years. I'm four seasons down from the podcast. I'm about to start the fifth season.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Caa Matters is finally launching after years and years of tweaking and working and thinking, and, you know, being scared to launch it and then thinking no one wants this and then thinking it doesn't matter, if no one wants this, I have to do this anyways. And then figuring out marketing and building a website and just all of the things that go into a big dream just took so much longer than I could have ever imagined, and yet I kept going, because this is something that is meant to come out of me and meant to be offered to this CAA community. So I just launched right in there, didn't I? But I'm here to say that I have two offerings. So if you are an AA educator, a program leader, someone who is an adjunct professor like I was from an MSA program and your AA program needs a bulk up or needs any level of professional development, slash wellness curriculum, maybe you have a class here or there, maybe you have one guest speaker who comes and speaks about, you know, burnout, or speaks on substance use disorder, but you don't have something that's cohesive and also is longitudinal over the course of a year-long commitment for your AA students.

Speaker 1: 8:21

I want you to go to the show notes and sign up right now to receive more information on how to bring CAA Matters to your AA program. I mentioned a 12-month commitment, but right now, the team and I are offering a two-month pilot program for CAA Matters that's pre-built and can be easily implemented into any schedule. So go to the show notes, sign up to learn more. I'd love to book a discovery call with you just to talk about what CAA Matters can offer your program, how it can enhance any offerings you already have and really elevate your program to the next level. Give AA students what we truly deserve, which are the tools and resources and consistent effort into helping them become their best selves as human beings and as CAAs.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And finally, if you happen to be a pre-AA and you are watching this now or listening to this on audio podcast, I was absolutely blown away maybe now about a month and a half ago when I put a call out on Instagram for applications for a pre-AA internship for CAA Matters. So I cannot run CAA Matters alone. I knew I needed some help and I knew I needed interns to help me facilitate the execution of CAA Matters. It's a virtual course and the delivery of it needs to be seamless and engaging so that we can create the type of connection that really creates transformation in this class and program. And so I knew I needed help and I knew I wanted the pre-AA community to be the ones who had the opportunity to help, simply because this is so specifically designed for CAAs and I know how hard it is as a pre-AA to get that direct experience into the profession to understand what it's going to look and feel like and I thought, well, this is great, the interns can work alongside me, they'll get to meet AA students as I'm teaching it and they're helping to facilitate, and everyone will be able to sort of get something of high value from this.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Well, you guys, the Pre-A community, completely blew me away. I had over 100 applications for three paid internships and I was stunned to hear number one how committed you all are to the CAA profession, to becoming the best CAAs and becoming the best applicants that you can be, and how difficult it's been to connect directly with CAAs. Of course everyone's struggling with shadowing hours and just how it feels like you're kind of on the outside of the CAA profession like knocking one to get yourself inside and how you saw that as such a huge value that I was providing to sort of be looking for pre-A interns. And so I thought you know I have some time between this pilot program I'm offering in July, the Awaken Anestis podcast season five, restarting in September or starting up in September, and then, as I'm gearing up to teach the full curriculum of CAA Matters late this year and early 2026, I thought I think there's some time in there that I can give CAA Matters a review and make it for pre-AAs. So take some of that language and add a little bit more detail so, if you're not a current AA student, you'll understand why receiving critical feedback can be so overwhelming as an AA student, or why boundaries are so important, or all the many ways that you can manage stress while you're giving anesthesia, like not while you're necessarily, you know, I don't know coming down off some stressful exam or something, but how do I manage stress in the operating room? And I could offer the pre-AA community really a glimpse inside what it's going to feel like as CAAs, what it will feel like as AA students because you're taking an AA program course, a course that's designed for graduate level MSA programs, and I just thought you know, I think I can do this and I want to do this and it felt like the pre-A community would really benefit from having this information as early as possible. This wellness, this professional development information, is only more helpful the earlier you have it, and I just think there's so much value that you can gain as a pre-AA to understand why you want to be a CAA. It's gonna allow you to have a better handle on the language and know what it's gonna feel like. So when you go to the interview or you're discerning between, do I really wanna be a CAA or not, this program is going to give you the tools, the resources, the insight to be able to feel really good about your decision, as well as feel really confident when you walk into your interview for your number one. A program top choice that I'm sure everyone will get. And if this is you, if this sounds interesting to you, if you're a pre-AA student, you don't have to be. You know, applying right now you can be. You can be a year or two away from applying.

Speaker 1: 13:38

The pre-AA community is kind of a wide swath of people who are interested in becoming CAAs and are maybe wanting to learn a little bit more, all the way up to people who are actively applying to AA school. This is something you can put on your resume. This is something you can reference in your interview. This is something that is going to give you really high value touch points into the CAA profession. So there's going to be a link for you in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1: 14:05

You can also follow me on Instagram. I've created a pre-AA CAA Matters highlight that as the enrollment opened. I've been sort of sharing some more and explaining things and sort of taking you all behind the scenes so you can check out that highlight. You can DM me, of course, on Instagram your questions. You can email me at awakenanesthetist at gmailcom and you can always sign up through the link that is in the show notes to receive more email information and, yeah, I just hope that it finds the right people.

Speaker 1: 14:37

If you are an AA educator and leader, please follow that instinct right now. If you think, hey, this could be interesting, we kind of you know maybe we've been struggling to find the right way to teach this to our students. I have years of practice bringing self-care and bringing professional development down into the tangible level, so we're not sort of grabbing at straws, but we're really making transformative change at the AA program level. Yeah, so please just follow through if this sounds interesting to you. If you're pre-AA and this sounds interesting, please do the same.

Speaker 1: 15:12

I think that's all I want to say. I'm going to go try to edit this video and I hope you all again, have a wonderful summer. If you are in the throes of applying to AA school right now, best of luck to you. I feel like I'm, on this, a similar path right now, where life is asking a lot for me and I just have to step up to the plate because this is what I want. So we're both going out there and getting exactly what we want, and I'm excited to be here with you all. All right, we'll see you in September and I hope to talk before then.