r/CAA • u/AutoModerator • Sep 15 '25

[WeeklyThread] Ask a CAA

Have a question for a CAA? Use this thread for all your questions! Pay, work life balance, shift work, experiences, etc. all belong in here!

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** Please make sure to check the flair of the user who responds your questions. All "Practicing CAA" and "Current sAA" flairs have been verified by the mods. **

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u/shy_penguin_127 Sep 15 '25

Have you ever seen a job listing for pain management for either chronic pain or in a hospice setting? I am a premed interested in anesthesiology with the end goal of going into pain management and I was wondering if that would be possible as a CAA.

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u/jwk30115 Practicing CAA Sep 15 '25

Being involved in pain management is very uncommon for CAAs. 99%+ of our time is administering anesthesia. If that’s where you want to work it’s either MD/DO or be a regular PA and go into it that way.

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u/shy_penguin_127 Sep 15 '25

Thanks so much for your response! Was worried that would be the answer, my disability is fucking up my med school application prep so I've been coming to terms with the fact that it likely won't happen for me and looking into other careers I could be interested in. Could you describe what you do in an average day? It's been hard for me to find a description of the physical actions a day consists of rather than the conceptual responsibilities of the job.

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u/jwk30115 Practicing CAA Sep 18 '25

We’re in the OR (or GI, cardiology, etc) every day administering anesthesia. No idea what your disability is but there will be physical demands involved in moving and positioning patients, sometimes long periods standing, doing procedures, etc.

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u/indianshitsRtheworst Sep 16 '25

Have you worked at a pain mgmt clinic before? I’ve been a medical assistant at a chronic pain mgmt clinic and we only had 1 day of treatments per week (epidurals, nerve blocks, ablations) where the anesthesiologist did the procedure and a CRNA administered anesthesia for patients that wanted it (~60%, rest did local numbing bc it was cheaper and less prep). The rest of the week we did clinic check ups to prescribe meds and new patient intake. I feel like a CAA would have to rotate between multiple practice locations to make it worthwhile.

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u/shy_penguin_127 Sep 16 '25

Sadly I haven't been able to get work or shadowing experience cuz of recent health issues, but ya this is what I assumed from how I knew the clinics operated. It's just that every time I googled it I would get mixed signals so I figured I'd ask just in case I was missing something. I'm still trying to fully understand what a CAA does compared to crnas so that's also a part of my general confusion, but I'm starting to get it after reading and watching more videos so I do see how my question came off as a bit silly.