Healthcare Practitioners
Nurse Anesthetists
Also called: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Nurse Anesthetist, Staff Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (Staff CRNA), Staff Nurse Anesthetist
US median pay
$236,590
per year, 2025
Job growth 2025–35
+9.7%
faster than average
Openings a year (US)
2,400
54,500 employed
Typical entry education
Master's degree
Preparation 5/5 · Extensive preparation
What this job is
Administer anesthesia, monitor patient's vital signs, and oversee patient recovery from anesthesia. May assist anesthesiologists, surgeons, other physicians, or dentists. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.
What they do day to day
- Manage patients' airway or pulmonary status, using techniques such as endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, pharmacological support, respiratory therapy, and extubation.
- Respond to emergency situations by providing airway management, administering emergency fluids or drugs, or using basic or advanced cardiac life support techniques.
- Monitor patients' responses, including skin color, pupil dilation, pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, ventilation, or urine output, using invasive and noninvasive techniques.
- Select, order, or administer anesthetics, adjuvant drugs, accessory drugs, fluids or blood products as necessary.
- Select, prepare, or use equipment, monitors, supplies, or drugs for the administration of anesthetics.
- Assess patients' medical histories to predict anesthesia response.
- Perform or manage regional anesthetic techniques, such as local, spinal, epidural, caudal, nerve blocks and intravenous blocks.
- Develop anesthesia care plans.
- Obtain informed consent from patients for anesthesia procedures.
- Prepare prescribed solutions and administer local, intravenous, spinal, or other anesthetics, following specified methods and procedures.
Skills and knowledge that matter most
Skills
- Judgment and Decision Making4.0/5
- Complex Problem Solving4.0/5
- Social Perceptiveness3.9/5
- Service Orientation3.9/5
- Time Management3.4/5
- Coordination3.4/5
- Operations Monitoring3.2/5
- Instructing3.2/5
Knowledge
- Medicine and Dentistry4.8/5
- Customer and Personal Service4.6/5
- Biology4.6/5
- Chemistry4.3/5
- Mathematics4.3/5
- Education and Training4.3/5
Importance rated by people working in the job (1 = not important, 5 = extremely important).
Education and preparation
Preparation level 5 of 5 — Extensive preparation. Usually a graduate degree (master's, PhD, MD, JD) and extensive experience.
Typical entry education (BLS): Master's degree.
Highest education of people in this job:
- Doctoral degree56%
- Master's degree41%
Who this job suits
Mostly Social
Helping, teaching and caring for people
Investigative
Ideas, research and solving problems
Realistic
Hands-on work with tools, machines, plants or animals
Based on the Holland (RIASEC) interest profile for this occupation.