--- title: "Nurse Anesthetist" description: "Administer anesthesia, monitor patient's vital signs, and oversee patient recovery from anesthesia. May assist anesthesiologists, surgeons, other…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Nurse Anesthetist **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1151 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1151.00 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. Also advertised as: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA); Nurse Anesthetist; Staff Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (Staff CRNA); Staff Nurse Anesthetist. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $236,590 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $113.75/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $155,250 to $339,500, with the middle half between $206,730 and $294,350 - **Total US employment:** 51,840 - **Typical entry education:** Master's - **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +8.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 2,700 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 55/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 51,840 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $155,250 | | 25th | $206,730 | | 50th (median) | $236,590 | | 75th | $294,350 | | 90th | $339,500 | | Mean (average) | $248,320 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AK | $341,210 | $333,346 | 90 | | NY | $321,030 | $297,468 | 2,450 | | MA | $295,550 | $279,461 | 500 | | CA | $292,410 | $264,099 | 2,230 | | NJ | $291,350 | $267,773 | Not published by BLS | | IL | $286,830 | $286,951 | 1,140 | | VT | $283,060 | $288,961 | 40 | | WV | $278,530 | $311,217 | 740 | | MT | $277,380 | $293,074 | Not published by BLS | | NH | $275,980 | $264,945 | 490 | | WA | $274,390 | $256,408 | 760 | | WI | $273,170 | $290,313 | 990 | | IA | $273,070 | $311,148 | 380 | | OR | $272,330 | $263,475 | 370 | | MN | $266,190 | $269,912 | 2,130 | 29 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 44 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nurse-anesthetist. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 53,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 58,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 4,600 jobs, or +8.6%. Much faster than average: 8.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Doctoral Degree | 55.6% | | Master's Degree | 40.7% | | First Professional Degree | 3.7% | ## What the work involves - 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. - Obtain informed consent from patients for anesthesia procedures. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Science — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Biology — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Chemistry — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Mathematics — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Education and Training — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Information Ordering — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Realistic (R). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 5.35 | | I — Investigative | 5.06 | | R — Realistic | 4.78 | | C — Conventional | 4.15 | | E — Enterprising | 1.96 | | A — Artistic | 1.00 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ISFJ | 70.7 | | ISTJ | 69.7 | | ISTP | 61.7 | | ESTJ | 59.5 | | ISFP | 59.0 | Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist) — median $391,490 - [Anesthesiologist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist-assistant) — median $135,880 - [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300 - [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550 - [Nurse Midwife](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-midwife) — median $134,040 - [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550 - [Physician Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physician-assistant) — median $135,880 ### Nurse Anesthetist compared with - [CRNA vs Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crna-vs-anesthesiologist) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements - [NP vs CRNA](https://nuecareer.com/careers/np-vs-crna) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nurse-anesthetist