Image credit: TRU

By Aaron Schulze

Anesthesia Assistant program

First crop of graduates from TRU’s accelerated anesthesia assistant program set to work in local operating rooms

Oct 22, 2024 | 11:58 AM

KAMLOOPS — The first eight Interior Health graduates from Thompson Rivers University’s (TRU) accelerated anesthesia assistant program will be working in operating rooms within the health authority.

TRU says the eight participants in the 11-month, full-time post-diploma program were sponsored by their work sites – including Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops – and will work there for at least one year as a return of service. The eight graduates were respiratory therapy clinicians.

In a news release issued Tuesday (Oct. 22), TRU says the program was supported by John Patton, Interior Health’s anesthesia assistant clinical instructor, as part of a partnership between the university and the health authority.

“Working as a registered respiratory therapist has contributed to my learning progression, but I had no idea that the scope of the anesthesia assistant was so broad: cell saver, massive transfusion, sed-line monitoring for depth of anesthesia and so much more,” Shannon Lindsay, a trainee, states.

TRU says the eight graduates will be members of the anesthesia care team in the operating room, delivering clinical services lead by anesthesiologist leaders throughout the process — before, during and after surgery. They are also eligible to pursue Canadian certification as certified clinical anesthesia assistants.

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