Nurse Anesthetist job description

Anesthesia care starts before the first drug, with a pre-anesthetic screening and a read of the patient's history to predict how they will respond, and it runs until the patient is awake and stable. In between, the CRNA manages the airway and tracks skin color, pupils, pulse, blood pressure, respiration, and urine output through invasive and noninvasive monitors, adjusting the anesthetic to match. It is the best paid nursing work in the country: a median of $236,590 in May 2025, with ten percent earning less than $155,250 and ten percent more than $339,500, against $132,300 for the nurse practitioners covered in the same Handbook profile.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

Airway and pulmonary management leads everything else, through intubation, mechanical ventilation, pharmacological support, and extubation, with emergency fluids, drugs, and advanced cardiac life support when a case turns. CRNAs select, order, and administer anesthetics and adjuvant drugs, perform regional techniques including spinal, epidural, caudal, and nerve blocks, write the anesthesia care plan, take informed consent, and evaluate the post-surgical response, requesting consultation when complications appear. Many also cover pain management and some emergency services. Surgical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and obstetric cases all need covering, so hospital practice comes with shifts, weekends, and call.

Common Skills and Technologies

Reading comprehension and critical thinking rate highest, ahead of the science knowledge the drugs demand, and monitoring here is continuous rather than periodic. The anesthesia record goes into whichever chart the hospital runs, most often Epic. The rest of the kit is physical: anesthesia machines, gas and drug delivery apparatus, and monitors, which the CRNA calibrates and tests during setup.

Education, Training, and Career Path

Getting there takes a registered nursing license, a graduate degree in the nurse anesthesia specialty, a national certification exam, and state APRN licensure, which is why 56 percent of the workforce reports a doctorate and 41 percent a master's, with a first professional degree covering the rest. The occupation is small: 54,500 jobs in 2025, a projected 59,800 by 2035, and 10 percent growth over the decade. The advanced practice group of nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners turns over about 32,200 positions a year, and most of those replace someone who retired or moved rather than expanding a department.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-1151.00 Nurse Anesthetists, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1151.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-1151, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291151.htm. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nurse-anesthetists-nurse-midwives-and-nurse-practitioners.htm.