3 Anesthesia Terms To Know Before Shadowing A CAA

You're scheduled to shadow an anesthesia professional in the operating room and want to be prepared to glean as much as possible from the experience. Here are 3 anesthesia-specific terms that will help orient you to what you're witnessing.

1. Induction

Induction of anesthesia is the process of using drugs to put a patient to sleep. The drugs can be administered through a variety of routes including inhalation, intramuscular, and intravenous, with intravenous being the most common. Intravenous drug administration means the medication is pushed through an IV line directly into a patient's vein.


Prior to induction, an anesthesia professional ensures all required monitors are attached to the patient including a pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff, and ECG leads. After the monitors are on and the patient is asleep, the CAA tapes the eyes closed to prevent corneal abrasions to the eyes. At that time, the airway is managed through a variety of methods such as bag mask ventilation, endotracheal tube (ETT) placement, or laryngeal mask airway (LMA) placement.

2. Maintenance

Following induction of anesthesia is the maintenance phase, where the patient is now asleep and ready for the surgical team to begin the procedure.


Maintenance entails keeping the patient adequately anesthetized, managing the patient's pain, ensuring optimal surgical conditions, and maintaining the patient's hemodynamic status. Here a some examples of tasks you may witness the CAA perform:

  • Monitor depth of anesthetic and hemodynamic status
  • Adjust ventilator setting to optimize the patient's breathing
  • Place an oral or nasogastric tube to decompress the stomach
  • Administer medication to treat blood pressure or heart rate
  • Monitor urine output from a Foley catheter and surgical blood loss
  • Give packed red blood cells or other necessary blood products
  • Maintain a detailed and accurate chart of all tasks performed and medications administered

3. Emergence

When the surgical procedure is complete, the CAA then begins the process of waking up the patient.


Before the volatile anesthetic may be turned off and the ETT safely removed from a patient's trachea, the patient must be fully reversed from any paralyzing medications that were used to secure the airway or to keep the patient still during the procedure. The patient must be able to breath on their own spontaneously without support of a ventilator. The patient also receives medication to prevent post-operative nausea and pain.


Emergence from anesthesia is not like an on/off switch and requires skillful timing to ensure a timely and smooth wake up. Once the patient is breathing on their own and is hemodynamically stable, they are transported to the post anesthesia care unit (PACU).

Final Thoughts...

Knowing these three words of anesthesia jargon will provide a useful roadmap for each case you observe while shadowing. Don't forget that after you shadow, you'll want to make a note of everything you witnessed. You can instantly download our Shadowing Tracker resource!

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Sarah is the founder of Aspiring CAA, a practicing certified anesthesiologist assistant, clinical preceptor, and assistant professor at a master of medical science program. With admission committee experience and an intricate knowledge of the admissions process, she helps guide prospective CAA students on their career journey.

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About this blog

Aspiring CAA is the go-to blog for expert advice on how to become a CAA. Founded by a practicing certified anesthesiologist assistant, clinical preceptor, and assistant professor at a master of medical science program in anesthesiology, Aspiring CAA makes admissions guidance readily available to all aspiring anesthesiologist assistants. With admission committee experience and an intricate knowledge of the admissions process, Aspiring CAA takes the guess work out of applying to CAA school.

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