Cer.A.T.T. study guide
Cer.A.T.T. · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Anesthesia Technician/Technologist (Cer.A.T.T.) credential is a professional certification for the technicians and technologists who keep anesthesia care running: setting up and checking machines and breathing circuits, supporting airway management, preparing and tracking medications, maintaining monitors, reprocessing equipment, and assisting the anesthesia care team during routine cases and emergencies. It is generally pursued by people already working in or training for anesthesia support roles - surgical services staff, anesthesia technicians, and students in anesthesia technology programs - and is often used as a benchmark of job-ready competence for hiring and advancement. The Cer.A.T.T. study guide has 8 sections and about 2,274 words.
01Anesthesia Equipment and Instrumentation
The anesthesia machine is a sequence: gas supply → regulators → fail-safe and proportioning devices → flowmeters → vaporizers → common gas outlet → breathing circuit → scavenger. Questions test whether you know which component protects against which failure.
325 words, about 2 min02Patient Monitoring and Physiologic Data Interpretation
Capnography is the most reliable confirmation of tracheal intubation. A normal capnogram has a flat inspiratory phase, a steep upstroke, an alveolar plateau, and a rapid downstroke to near zero.
291 words, about 1 min03Anesthesia Pharmacology and Medication Management
Anesthesia technicians manage the arithmetic of drug safety more than receptor pharmacology. Master the conversions: 1% = 10 mg/mL, 0.1% = 1 mg/mL, 1:1000 epinephrine = 1 mg/mL, 1:100,000 = 10 mcg/mL.
274 words, about 1 min04Airway Management and Respiratory Support
Mallampati class, mouth opening, thyromental distance, neck mobility, and prior difficulty are screening tools with limited individual predictive power; they are used together. Plan A/B/C/D thinking - laryngoscopy (direct or video), supraglottic rescue, front-of-neck access, and an extubation strategy - mirrors the ASA difficult airway algorithm.
267 words, about 1 min05Infection Prevention and Aseptic Technique
The Spaulding classification drives every reprocessing question. Critical items enter sterile tissue or the vascular system and require sterilization.
285 words, about 1 min06Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, and Regulatory Compliance
The anesthesia technician works inside ASA standards and practice parameters, AAMI and NFPA 99 for equipment and electrical safety, OSHA for occupational exposure, CMS Conditions of Participation, and Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals. The Universal Protocol - preprocedure verification, site marking, and a time-out - is a frequent question target: the time-out occurs in the room, before the procedure starts, with active participation by the whole team, and the record must show it happened.
296 words, about 1 min07Professional Practice, Communication, and Documentation
Expectations converge from law, accreditation, and payer rules: a pre-anesthesia evaluation documented before induction, an intraoperative record updated at least every five minutes (vitals, agents, events, interventions), a post-anesthesia note, and complete medication entries with dose, route, time, and administrator. Late entries are labeled as late with the actual time written - never back-dated.
280 words, about 1 min08Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Response
MH presents with a rising ETCO2 unresponsive to increased ventilation, tachycardia, rigidity, and acidosis; hyperthermia is a late sign. Actions: stop volatile agents and succinylcholine, switch to a clean circuit with 100% oxygen at high flow (≥10 L/min), give dantrolene 2.5 mg/kg IV and repeat until controlled, cool appropriately, treat hyperkalemia and acidosis, monitor urine output, and call for help and the MHAUS hotline.
256 words, about 1 min