Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Human edge, growing
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.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 95% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +9.7% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and emotional intelligence.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $236,590
- Job growth to 2035
- +9.7%
- Openings a year
- 2,400
- People doing it (2025)
- 54,500
- Usual route in
- Master's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Prepare mixtures or solutions
- Perform administrative or clerical activities
- Analyze health or medical data
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Administer basic health care or medical treatments
- Prescribe medical treatments or devices
- Administer emergency medical treatment
What the work looks like
- 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.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as the anesthesia care team model becomes more common and practice autonomy of nurse anesthetists expands, allowing for greater utilization of nurse anesthetists relative to anesthesiologists.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Orthotists and prosthetistsHuman edge, growing, Index 96, +12.9%
- Physician assistantsHuman edge, growing, Index 97, +21.1%
- Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineersHuman edge, growing, Index 96, +8.3%
Also known as: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Nurse Anesthetist, Staff Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (Staff CRNA), Staff Nurse Anesthetist.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.