Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
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
- Median pay in Greater Boston
- Above the highest published wage
- Jobs in Greater Boston
- 530
- Massachusetts 2024–2034
- +5.3%
- 30 openings a year
- Typical U.S. entry requirement
- Master's degree
Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.
Pay range in Greater Boston
Pay for this job is above the highest published wage in the federal survey, so no range is shown.
What you’d do
- 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.
AI and this job
AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.
Moderate exposure44 of 100
The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:
- AIOE 54
- Language-model AIOE 50
- GPTs-are-GPTs 27
Observed AI use today: Little or none (Anthropic Economic Index)
AI exposure for nurse anesthetists is moderate, and observed AI use is little or none so far. AI tools may help with monitoring data and preparing equipment and supplies. Managing a patient's airway, giving anesthesia, and responding to emergencies rely on advanced training and quick human judgment.
Likely to change
- Tracking patient monitor readings
- Preparing equipment, supplies, and drug orders
Still relies on people
- Managing airways and giving anesthesia safely
- Responding fast to emergencies in surgery
Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.
Next steps from here
Related jobs that build on what you already do.
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Your emergency care and cardiac life support skills carry over. This move needs less schooling but pays less than your current role.
- Pay difference
- Not published
- AI exposure
- Lower
- MA growth
- +2.0%
- To get started
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Surgical Technologists
Your experience in operating rooms and with surgical equipment carries over. It needs a nondegree award and offers a shorter training path.
- Pay difference
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- AI exposure
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- MA growth
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- To get started
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Training near Boston
College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).
0 programs near Boston (plus 1 graduate)
No programs below a master’s degree near Boston map to this job. Tick the box above to see graduate programs.
Related occupations
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