AA acceptable overseas qualification (AOQ) criteria

  1. Summary
  2. AA acceptable overseas qualification (AOQ) criteria
  3. How we assess if your qualification meets our criteria
  4. What information do I need to provide on my qualification assessment?
  5. What happens after I submit my qualification assessment?
  1. What happens after you’ve paid your qualification assessment fee?
  2. What happens if my qualification assessment is accepted?
  3. What happens if my qualification assessment is not approved?
  4. I am ready to have my qualification assessed

For us to accept your AA qualification, we must be satisfied that it meets the criteria set out in our policy on assessing overseas qualifications for anaesthesia associate registration.

The criteria are also set out in the table below.

You will need to provide evidence to demonstrate that the programme of study leading to your qualification meet these criteria. We will also need objective evidence from the awarding institution.

AA AOQ Criteria


No. Criteria
 1 Your qualification must permit you to practise as an Anaesthesia Associate or other comparable title, in the country where the qualification was awarded.
 2 Your qualification must have been awarded in a country where the profession is regulated by law and must have been accepted for registration as an AA (or other comparable title) in that country, OR your qualification must have been accepted to hold registration as an AA in another country where the profession is regulated by law.*
 3 Your qualification must have been awarded from an institution which is accredited by a recognised organisation in the country where it was awarded. For example a regulatory body, Ministry of Health or Education or other appropriate government body.
 4

Your qualification, and education and training must:

  • be based in scientific, evidence-based medicine
  • include knowledge of biomedical science
  • be of a level at least equivalent to a postgraduate diploma from a UK university.
 5 Your programme of study that led to your qualification should have taken a minimum of two academic years to complete.
 6 Your programme of study should have contained approximately 3000 hours of time in education and training.
 7

If you have studied at more than one institution and the study contributed to the award of your AA qualification, it must be clear that:

  • the institution is part of a recognised twinning programme or a recognised campus of another institution, or
  • it was not possible to complete your qualification at one institution for justifiable reasons and
  • the course credits that contributed to the award of your qualification must not have included credits transferred from another institution where you failed or were excluded (or where you left to avoid exclusion).
 8 Your programme of study must have involved in-person clinical experience which was overseen and approved by the institution you attended. As a minimum this should have comprised of 60% of the total course hours.
 9

The in-person clinical experience completed as part of your programme of study must include experience in each of the following areas:

  • Perioperative care
  • General anaesthesia
  • Regional anaesthesia
  • Resuscitation and transfer
  • Procedural Sedation
  • Pain
  • Anaesthetic implications of specific populations
 10

The course that led to your qualification must have included training in the practical procedures listed below, and you must have been assessed as competent to at least the level indicated:

Capable of performing:

  • Insertion of supraglottic airway Intubation using standard laryngoscope
  • Intubation using video laryngoscope
  • Spinal anaesthesia
  • Simple peripheral nerve block
  • Peripheral venous cannulation
  • Urinary catheterisation
  • Ultrasound guided peripheral venous cannulation

Trained in simulated environment:

  • Emergency front of neck airway access
  • Needle thoracocentesis
  • Nasogastric tube insertion

Understands how to perform procedure and can assist senior anaesthetist:

  • Arterial line
  • Chest drain insertion
 11 The course leading to your qualification must have always included your supervision and delegation from a fully-qualified doctor anaesthetist, at level 1a or 1b of the UK curriculum entrustment scale (or equivalent) for all clinical theatre sessions and any interventions performed whilst in clinical training.

* This criterion is disapplied for AA qualifications from the Republic of Ireland, to account for the unique political factors and long-standing agreements that exist between the United Kingdom and Ireland, including the Common Travel Agreement and the Belfast Agreement (the Good Friday Agreement). This criterion is also disapplied for applicants with qualifications obtained from EFTA countries and Switzerland due to the specific legislative requirements that apply.

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