Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code SIR

Nurse Anesthetists

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 called: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Nurse Anesthetist, Staff Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (Staff CRNA), Staff Nurse Anesthetist.

O*NET 29-1151.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $236,590; Middle half earn $206,730 to $294,350. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Doctoral Degree; 56% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 5 of 5; Extensive preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

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.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Reading Comprehension4.1 / 5
Critical Thinking4.1 / 5
Active Listening4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Active Learning4.0 / 5
Monitoring4.0 / 5

Knowledge areas

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 ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic63
Investigative68
Artistic0
Social73
Enterprising16
Conventional53

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

specialist nurse · DE Fachkrankenpfleger/Fachkrankenschwester · FR infirmier spécialiste/infirmière spécialiste
doctors' surgery assistant · DE Medizinischer Fachangestellter/Medizinische Fachangestellte · FR assistant en cabinet médical/assistante en cabinet médical
anaesthetic technician · DE Anästhesietechnischer Assistent/Anästhesietechnische Assistentin · FR infirmier anesthésiste/infirmière anesthésiste

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Registered community nurses (2232)70,400 employed
Registered specialist nurses (2233)82,300 employed
Registered nurse practitioners (2234)91,500 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Technicians and associate professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Technicians and associate professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€50,992
Austria	€46,986
Germany	€44,473
Netherlands	€42,448
Ireland	€41,613
Sweden	€41,155
Italy	€34,882
France	€34,816
Spain	€29,757
Portugal	€18,080
Poland	€12,108

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.24. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (29-1151).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test