Draft Anaesthesia Associate Scope of Practice 2024

As the organisation responsible for safeguarding standards in anaesthesia, it is our role to agree a workable and safe scope of practice for AAs, both at the point of qualification and beyond, including required levels of supervision. We now present the final draft of the Anaesthesia Associate Scope of Practice 2024 for consultation with members and relevant organisations.

We have consulted widely during the development of the draft AA Scope of Practice. The Association of Anaesthetists and Regional Anaesthesia-UK (RA-UK) have had input as members of the Core Writing Group. We have also worked collaboratively with our representative Clinical Reference Group over many months and taken into consideration the views of the membership as expressed through both the extraordinary general meeting and survey conducted in 2023.

The 2024 Scope of Practice is recommended by the RCoA. We believe it will enable AAs to continue to deliver patient care under supervision while also addressing the concerns we have heard from our members about patient safety.   

Details about the context, development and decision making processes of the 2024 scope of practice can be found in the briefing information.

Download the draft Anaesthesia Associate Scope of Practice 2024 here.

Specific sections of the AA Scope of Practice as referred to in the consultation questions can be found below:

• Phases post qualification 
• Principles guiding capacity to support AAs
• Principles underpinning clinical supervision of AAs
• Practice of clinical supervision of AAs
• AA Scope of Practice - Phase 1
• AA Scope of Practice - Phase 2
• AA Scope of Practice - Phase 3
• Plan for transition to 2024 AA SoP