The nurse anesthetist who takes the blocks nobody else will
$416,000top of the range in Florida · middle $236,590 / yr
AI augments this role
Nurse Anesthetists in the United States earn a median of $236,590 a year. Pay starts near $155,250. Pay reaches $416,000 at the top of the range in Florida, the best-paying state for this work among those with at least 500 people in the job.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Nurse Anesthetists, SOC 29-1151). Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$155,250
Top of the range · Florida
$416,000
Education
Doctoral degree (DNAP/DNP)
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Nurse Anesthetists). Top of the range is the highest state-level figure among states with at least 500 people in the job. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for Nurse AnesthetistReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Nurse Anesthetist work right now.
AbridgeNEWEnterprise / see site
Ambient AI scribe that turns a patient conversation into structured clinical notes.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: document a visit automatically instead of charting after your shift
Microsoft Dragon CopilotNEWEnterprise / see site
Voice AI that dictates and drafts clinical documentation (successor to Nuance DAX).
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: speak your notes and have the chart written and filed for you
Heidi HealthNEWFree / paid tiers
AI documentation tool built around clinician and nurse workflows.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: handle shift notes and handovers without manual write-ups
OpenEvidenceNEWFree for verified clinicians
AI that answers clinical questions from current medical evidence, with citations.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: check the latest evidence at the point of care in seconds
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: load your own manuals, policies, or PDFs and ask questions that stay accurate to the source
SukiEnterprise / see site
AI voice assistant for clinical notes and coding.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: dictate notes hands-free and cut charting time sharply
NablaFree tier / see site
Ambient AI assistant that generates notes from the patient encounter.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: capture the visit and get a ready-to-review note in seconds
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
The most-used AI assistant — writing, analysis, research, and images from a plain-language chat.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: draft emails and documents, summarize long files, and get instant answers to on-the-job questions
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing, long-document analysis, and coding.
How a Nurse Anesthetist uses it: analyze big reports or spreadsheets and turn messy notes into clean, finished writing
Licence first, anesthesia education next
A nurse anesthetist is an advanced practice nurse who provides anesthesia care. The path has two large gates, in order. First you hold a nursing licence, granted by a state board of nursing. That licence proves the state authorizes you to practice as a registered nurse. People prepare for it through a nursing degree and the board's own requirements. Second, you complete a nurse-anesthesia program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. You can see that body at COA. The program is graduate education, and current entry into the profession is commonly a doctoral program. It proves you studied anesthesia care in a curriculum the accreditor recognizes, with clinical training inside that program.
Certification follows the education. The National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetists grants the credential employers mean when they hire a CRNA. The board's site is NBCRNA. Holding the credential shows you finished an accredited program and met the board's requirements for practice. Keep it current the way the board describes. A state may also require a separate advanced-practice authorization on top of the RN licence. That authorization is the state's, not the board's. Read it for the state where you will work.
Programs commonly expect critical-care nursing experience before you start. How much, and what counts, is the program's rule. Check it rather than borrowing a number from a classmate in another state. The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology is the professional association. Membership is voluntary. It does not replace the licence, the program, or the certification. Use it for advocacy and practice resources after you know which of those three you still need.
The day of a procedure, described as a career
The working day is built around procedures. You meet the patient beforehand. You review the record with the surgeon or the procedural physician and with the rest of the team. You talk with the patient about what anesthesia care will involve, in language a layperson can follow, and you listen for history that changes the plan. During the procedure you are present and responsible for the anesthesia care, inside your training and the facility's rules. Afterward you stay through the handoff to the recovery team so the next clinician knows what happened and what to watch. That arc, repeated across a schedule of cases, is the practice.
This description stops there on purpose. Medications, amounts, and hands-on maneuvers are taught in your program and governed by the facility. They do not belong in a wage sketch, and nothing here is an instruction for giving anesthesia. What a job seeker needs is the shape of the day: preparation, presence, and a clean handoff. If a posting spends all its space on gadgets and none on who you will work with, ask for the missing half.
The cases themselves vary. An operating room in a community hospital, a labor unit, an outpatient surgery center, and a dental or specialty clinic can all employ a nurse anesthetist. Some days are a long single case. Others are a list of shorter ones. Call, nights, and weekends depend on the site. A center that closes in the afternoon is a different life from a trauma hospital. Ask for the case mix and the call expectation in writing before you compare two salaries that look similar on a spreadsheet.
Hospitals, surgery centers, and group practice
Employers come in a few forms. A hospital may hire you directly. An anesthesia group may hold the contract and staff several sites. A surgery center may want a small team and a predictable daytime list. State law and facility policy decide how independent the practice is and how you work with physician anesthesiologists. Ask which model the employer actually uses. "We are a care team" and "you are the anesthesia provider for these rooms" are different jobs. Neither one is something to guess from the job title alone.
Rural and smaller hospitals sometimes recruit because coverage is hard to keep. Urban centers sometimes recruit because volume is high. Both can be good careers. The difference shows up in call, in backup, and in whether you are the only anesthesia professional in the building at night. Those facts belong in the offer conversation next to pay. A higher number attached to constant solitary call is not automatically the better job. Look at the week.
Some nurse anesthetists later take roles in education, in management of an anesthesia service, or in a group's scheduling leadership. Those are branches from clinical practice, not a requirement. If you want to stay in the room, say so. If you want a path toward leading the service, ask whether the group has that path or whether leadership is reserved for another profession. Better to hear it before you move your family.
What a hiring packet looks like
A complete packet includes the RN licence, the graduate program, the NBCRNA credential or a clear date when you will hold it, and any state advanced-practice authorization. Add life-support credentials the facility names. References should include a program faculty member or a clinical site where someone saw you care for patients, plus a critical-care supervisor from before the program if you are new. New graduates are hired every year. The packet should look finished, not hypothetical.
In conversation, walk through a day at the level of teamwork. How you prepare a patient. How you speak up when the plan and the record disagree. How you hand off. Leave medications and maneuvers out. The people hiring you already know those are part of the education. They are deciding whether you will be safe to schedule, whether you communicate, and whether you will stay. Be ready to talk about call you will actually accept. Overpromising nights you cannot sustain helps nobody, including the patients on the schedule you abandon later.
If you are still in the program, recruiting often starts before graduation. Be precise about what you have done under supervision and what you have not. A group that needs someone who can take call alone on day one may be the wrong first job. A group with a structured start may be the right one even if the headline pay is closer to the entry figure. Ask who is in the building with you for the first months.
From intensive care nursing into practice
The earliest stage is critical-care nursing, before anesthesia school. You learn sick patients, rapid change, and how to talk with physicians under pressure. That stage is still registered-nurse work. It is preparation, not the CRNA wage. People who try to negotiate a nurse-anesthetist salary for an ICU role are mixing two careers.
School is the next stage, often with a steep drop in earnings while you study. Plan for that with the program's own cost information, not with a guess. Clinical training inside the program is supervised practice. You are not yet the person a hospital will put on the schedule as a credentialed CRNA. When the credential and the state authorization are in hand, the first job is usually a supported start: a set of cases, a colleague nearby, and a gradual widening of the list. Pay in that first job can sit nearer the entry figure than the national median, especially in a market with many new graduates.
Full practice is the stage where you carry a normal share of the schedule and the call. The national median becomes the right anchor. Later moves, to a scarce rural contract, to a high-volume specialty list, or to leadership of the service, are how people talk about the upper part of the range. Those moves should be visible in the duties. A title change with the same list and the same call is not, by itself, a reason to quote the top of the range.
Florida at the high end, New York at the median
These figures are Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, for Nurse Anesthetists. The series title matches this career closely. Entry pay is $155,250. The national median is $236,590. The high end of the published range in Florida is $416,000. That Florida number is the high end of the range. It is not a Florida median. No Florida median appears in this set, so do not invent one to place beside it.
The highest state median is New York at $321,030. Massachusetts shows a median of $295,550. California's median is $292,410. Illinois shows $286,830. Oklahoma has the lowest median in this set, $156,830. The gap between the highest state median and the lowest state median is $164,200. New York's median sits $84,440 above the national median. From entry pay to the national median the step is $81,340. From the national median to Florida's high end the step is $179,410.
Florida and New York are doing different jobs in this table
Florida supplies the high end of the published range, $416,000. New York supplies the highest median, $321,030. One is the top of a range. The other is a midpoint. They are not substitutes for each other.
Anchors for a compensation talk
A new graduate with the credential in hand can use $155,250 as the entry anchor and $236,590 as the national median they are walking toward once the schedule is a full share. The $81,340 between those two is the gap to name when the offer still looks like a training wage and the duties are already full practice. Bring the case mix and the call, not a list of medications. If the job is in New York, the local midpoint is $321,030, which is $84,440 above the national median. That is a geographic fact. It is a fair sentence in a New York negotiation. It is a muddled sentence in a state whose median is nowhere near that.
Keep the other medians labeled as medians. Massachusetts at $295,550, California at $292,410, Illinois at $286,830, and Oklahoma at $156,830 are midpoints, as is New York. The $164,200 from the highest to the lowest is the spread of those midpoints. Oklahoma's median sits near the national entry figure, which tells you the middle of the occupation in that state is far from New York's middle. Compare an offer with the midpoint of the place you will actually live.
Use $416,000 only as Florida's high end of the published range. The $179,410 from the national median up to that high end is the distance to the top of the range, not a typical step after a good year. If a recruiter opens with the Florida number for a job in another state, ask them to restate the offer against the national median and against that state's median if you have one from this set. If the job is in Florida, still ask whether the role is genuinely at the high end, with duties and a market to match, or whether the largest published figure was pulled forward because it sounds generous. Sign the schedule, the call, and the practice model in the same document as the pay. The licence, the education, and the credential got you in the room. The week you are agreeing to is what the number has to cover. If the employer offers a bonus, housing, or a loan repayment and will not put a dollar on it, ask for the base salary as a figure you can set next to $155,250 and $236,590. Benefits matter, and they are easier to judge when the wage itself is still visible. A clear base, a named call expectation, and a practice model you understand will age better than a headline that borrowed Florida's high end for a job located somewhere else.
The top of Nurse Anesthetist pay — and how to get there with AI
$416,000what Nurse Anesthetist pay reaches in Florida
Highest state-level top-of-range annual wage for Nurse Anesthetists, among states with at least 500 people in the job. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
And the role it leads to — Anesthesiologists — reaches $646,940 in Washington.
$155,250entry$236,590middle$416,000top end
At the top of the range of this profession sits the nurse anesthetist who can be handed the cases others decline: the difficult regional block, the sick patient, the site with no anesthesiologist down the hall.
Selecting and administering anesthetics, running pre-anesthetic screenings and prescribing post-anesthesia treatment are the shared floor of this job, and every certified provider does them. Separation begins with regional technique, spinals, epidurals, caudals, nerve blocks and intravenous blocks, and with subspecialty credentials such as pain management that extend practice past the operating room. Reading current literature and talking with colleagues is written into the job description precisely because that scope keeps moving. A retrieval assistant over your own guideline library answers a dosing or contraindication question in seconds, which frees study time for the hands-on skills no model can hand you.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingGet counted on the block list
Ask to be assigned where regional technique is routine, orthopedics, obstetrics, ambulatory surgery, and keep a personal log of every block you place.
Document each pre-anesthetic screening in Epic Systems or Allscripts Professional EHR with your own airway and comorbidity findings, so your case history stays retrievable.
Check infusion and dosing calculations against AetherPalm InfusiCalc rather than memory when a case is unfamiliar, and note the ones you got wrong.
Keep departmental protocols and current literature in NotebookLM so a question can be answered between cases without losing the source.
What proves it: A logged case history showing volume and variety of regional technique, not merely anesthetic hours.
Realistic span: the first two years after certification
A few years inAdd the credential that changes your case mix
Choose one subspecialty route, chronic pain, obstetric anesthesia or point-of-care ultrasound, and complete its full requirement rather than a weekend course.
Build study material from your own logged cases: pull the charts, write what you would do differently, and drill that.
Take the equipment role nobody wants, requesting repairs, adjustments and safety tests, because it seats you where capital decisions get made.
Work at least some months at a site with an independent practice model, since scope you never exercise is scope you cannot claim.
Write the post-anesthesia order sets for one service line and see them approved.
What proves it: A subspecialty certification alongside a case log showing you already practise at that scope.
Realistic span: years three through seven
ExperiencedPrice the scope you actually hold
Negotiate against a case mix you can prove, difficult airways, blocks placed, sites covered solo, rather than against a job title.
Take lead responsibility for a service line so scheduling and staffing decisions run through you.
Precept students against your written screening and block protocols instead of by demonstration alone.
Look at states whose practice model favours independent nurse anesthetists; Florida sits at the top of the range for this work.
What proves it: A staffing agreement written around the specific scope you carry.
Realistic span: eight years and onward
The next 90 days
Start a case log in the next ninety days and make it specific enough to argue from. For every case record the anesthetic chosen, whether a regional technique was used and which, the airway, the comorbidities that changed your plan, and anything from the pre-anesthetic screening that turned out to matter. Ninety days will show you the shape of your own practice, and most providers discover they are doing the same three anesthetics on the same three kinds of patients. Pick the technique you place least often and arrange to be in the room where it happens weekly. Scope is bought with repetitions, and the log is what proves you have them.
Wage figures: BLS OEWS, May 2025. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Start with the documentation that steals your time: pre-op and clinic notes. If your institution has an approved ambient AI scribe (Abridge, Nuance DAX Copilot, or Suki), turn it on for your pre-anesthesia assessments and pain-clinic visits — it drafts the note from the visit so you review and sign instead of typing. You stay in full control of the record; you just stop spending your evening on it.
For evidence and learning — never patient data — open OpenEvidence or UpToDate for current anesthesia guidance, and use Claude or ChatGPT for board (CPC) preparation and general clinical refreshers phrased in general terms. Keep everything with patient identifiers inside your approved clinical systems. AI is the resident who preps the note and pulls the reference; you are the anesthetist who assesses the patient and owns the anesthetic.
The one rule, forever: AI is decision support only — the CRNA (and the supervising anesthesiologist where the care model requires) makes every anesthetic decision and remains legally responsible for patient safety. Use only HIPAA-compliant, institution-approved tools; never paste protected health information into a consumer AI tool. Never let an AI risk score, a generated note, or a 'normal' output override your own airway, hemodynamic, and clinical assessment or your intraoperative vigilance. Ambient scribe notes must be read, corrected, and signed by you before they enter the record — you own every word.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Cut pre-op and clinic charting with an ambient AI scribe
Why this pays: CRNA pay, especially on a 1099 or per-case basis, tracks the cases and clinics you can cover. Ambient documentation that drafts your pre-anesthesia assessments and pain-clinic notes reclaims the after-hours charting time, letting you take on more work sustainably — the throughput behind the top of the band.
AbridgeNuance DAX CopilotSuki
1
Use an institution-approved ambient scribe (Abridge, Nuance DAX Copilot, or Suki) to draft your pre-anesthesia and pain-clinic notes from the visit — then read, correct, and sign every note before it enters the record.
2
Build a thorough pre-anesthesia assessment template so your documentation is consistent and complete (general template, no patient data).
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a CRNA educator. Draft a structured pre-anesthesia assessment note template covering: airway exam (Mallampati, thyromental, mouth opening, dentition), cardiac and pulmonary risk, relevant labs and studies, medications and allergies, NPO status, anesthetic history and family history of MH, ASA classification, and a plan section with anesthetic choice and contingencies. Include prompts for the high-risk findings I should never skip. General template only, no patient information.
Build reusable templates from general standards, never with a real patient's data. The ambient note is a draft you verify and sign — you are accountable for its accuracy.
What you'll havePre-op and clinic notes drafted from the visit and signed off fast — the reclaimed time that lets a CRNA sustainably cover more cases and clinics.
2
Query anesthesia evidence and guidelines at the point of care
Why this pays: Sharper, current clinical decisions build the reputation with surgeons and facilities that makes a CRNA the one they request — and requested CRNAs get the cases and the rates. AI evidence tools put the current guidance for a tricky comorbidity in front of you in seconds, in general terms.
OpenEvidenceUpToDateChatGPT
1
When a management question comes up, check current guidance fast in OpenEvidence or UpToDate — in general clinical terms, never with patient identifiers.
2
Get a concise, sourced summary of anesthetic considerations for a challenging comorbidity.
Copy-paste this prompt
Summarize the current anesthetic considerations for a patient on [GLP-1 receptor agonists] presenting for elective surgery: the aspiration-risk concerns, current guidance on holding the medication and NPO/preoperative management, airway and induction implications, and what the major anesthesia society recommendations say. Cite the guideline sources. General clinical guidance only — not a specific patient.
Ask in general terms; never enter identifiable patient details into a consumer tool. Confirm against the primary guideline and your own clinical judgment before applying it.
What you'll haveCurrent, guideline-based decisions delivered at the point of care — the clinical sharpness and reputation that make you the CRNA surgeons and facilities request.
3
Use perioperative risk tools as a vigilant second opinion
Why this pays: Fewer complications and fewer day-of-surgery cancellations mean smoother lists, safer patients, and a CRNA trusted with higher-acuity cases — the complexity that pays more. AI risk-stratification and monitoring analytics are a second set of eyes you confirm, never a decision-maker you defer to.
Where your Epic or AIMS platform surfaces validated perioperative risk models, treat them as a prompt to look harder at a flagged patient — and confirm or overrule every flag with your own assessment.
2
Pressure-test your own risk assessment and optimization plan for a complex patient type (general terms only).
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as an anesthesia risk consultant. For a patient profile with [severe OSA, obesity, and poorly controlled diabetes] presenting for [elective laparoscopic surgery], outline the key perioperative risks, the preoperative optimization worth pursuing, intraoperative anesthetic and airway considerations, and the postoperative monitoring that reduces complications. Frame it as a checklist I can reason through. General clinical framework only, not a specific patient.
Risk models and AI checklists are decision support only — your airway and hemodynamic assessment and intraoperative vigilance override any score. Never let a 'low-risk' output reduce your attention.
What you'll haveA second-opinion safety net on high-risk patients — fewer complications and cancellations, and the trust to take the complex, higher-acuity cases that pay more.
4
Ace the CPC recertification and subspecialize
Why this pays: Maintaining certification is mandatory, and adding skills — regional and pain, cardiac, obstetric, or trauma anesthesia — opens the higher-paying settings and cases. AI turns slow board and continuing-education prep into fast, targeted study, so you recertify and expand your scope faster than peers.
ChatGPTOpenEvidenceNBCRNA resources
1
Use official NBCRNA materials for the CPC requirements, and ChatGPT or OpenEvidence to drill the domains you find hardest with worked clinical reasoning (general, non-patient scenarios).
2
Build a CPC study plan and practice with realistic scenarios.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a CRNA board-prep coach. Build me a 12-week CPC (Continued Professional Certification) study plan focused on my weak areas: [pharmacology, applied clinical physiology, and airway management]. For each week, list the high-yield topics, the must-know guidelines and landmark evidence, and generate 10 scenario-based practice questions with detailed rationales for each answer choice. Keep everything as general clinical education, no patient data.
Use AI to understand and practice reasoning, not to memorize — and always verify clinical facts against primary sources. Certification and safe practice rest on real understanding.
What you'll haveCertification maintained and subspecialty skills added faster — the expanded scope that opens the higher-paying settings and cases.
5
Run your locum and 1099 CRNA practice like a business
Why this pays: Locum and independent 1099 contracting is the clearest route to the top of the CRNA band — premium hourly rates, call stipends, and travel work that a staff salary can't match. AI handles the business admin — contract review, rate benchmarking, tax and expense organization — so you keep more of that premium with less overhead.
ClaudeNomad HealthQuickBooks Self-Employed
1
Find high-rate assignments through locum platforms like Nomad Health and your network, use Claude to review contracts and benchmark rates, and track 1099 income and expenses in QuickBooks — treating your practice like the business it is.
2
Vet a locum or 1099 CRNA contract before you sign it.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as an advisor to an independent CRNA. List the questions I must ask and the terms I must check before signing a [1099 locum anesthesia contract]: hourly vs stipend rate and call/overtime pay, expected case mix and volume, the practice model and supervision requirements in that state, malpractice coverage including tail, credentialing and licensing support, travel and housing, cancellation terms, and the 1099 tax and retirement implications vs a W-2 role. Flag the red flags.
AI helps you prepare, but have an attorney review a real contract and a tax professional handle 1099 planning. Never share patient or facility-confidential information in the process.
What you'll havePremium locum and 1099 assignments, well-vetted and efficiently managed — the independent income that is the clearest path to $416,000.
6
Lead anesthesia AI adoption and practice efficiency
Why this pays: The CRNA who evaluates AI tools, improves documentation workflows, and helps run an efficient anesthesia service becomes a leader — chief CRNA, practice owner, or partner. Leadership plus the group-wide efficiency you drive is what carries compensation to the top of the band.
ClaudeAANA resourcesEpic
1
Propose a careful, evidence-based evaluation before your group adopts an AI documentation or risk tool, and own the workflow and quality piece — using AANA practice resources and your Epic/AIMS data to ground it.
2
Draft a proposal to evaluate an AI tool for your anesthesia group.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a chief CRNA writing a proposal. Draft a one-page plan to evaluate an [ambient AI documentation tool] for our anesthesia group before adoption: the workflow and time-savings to measure, the documentation-quality and accuracy checks, the HIPAA and data-governance requirements to confirm, how to run a limited pilot with a few providers, and the metrics for a go/no-go decision. Emphasize that clinician review and sign-off stay mandatory.
Validate any tool on your own workflow and patient population, and keep clinician review non-negotiable. Vendor claims and 'normal' AI outputs never replace CRNA judgment or accountability.
What you'll haveA validated, well-run AI and efficiency program you lead — the leadership route to chief CRNA, practice ownership, and top-of-band compensation.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $416,000 tier.
Month 1
Turn on an approved ambient scribe for your pre-op and clinic notes; review and sign every one, and measure the time saved.
Months 2-3
Build the habit of fast, general-terms evidence lookups (OpenEvidence, UpToDate) for tricky comorbidities at the point of care.
Months 3-6
Use perioperative risk tools as a confirming second opinion on complex patients — never overriding your own assessment.
Months 6-9
Accelerate CPC recertification and start building a subspecialty (regional/pain, cardiac, OB) with AI-driven study.
Months 9-12
If you want the top of the band, explore well-vetted locum or 1099 work and run the business side with AI support.
Year 2
Lead your group's AI documentation and efficiency evaluation — the route to chief CRNA, ownership, and $416,000.
Gear for this job
As an Amazon Associate, PayCrunch earns from qualifying purchases. Links to books and tools are for the job on this page; we only recommend what we’d use in the work.
Some links below are affiliate or partner links. PayCrunch may earn a commission if you enroll or subscribe through them, at no extra cost to you. Wage figures on this page still come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not from these programs.
Nurse Anesthetist work is specific enough that a stamped 'check out these courses' block would be noise. BLS files this work as Nurse Anesthetists (SOC 29-1151). O*NET Job Zone 5 is typical: graduate or professional school, so the honest next credential is a graduate-level or professional certificate — not a random catalog dump.
The occupation's listed knowledge areas include Medicine and Dentistry and Biology; the links search those subjects, not a generic 'career courses' list.
Nurse Anesthetists in this dataset list Epic Systems among the tools in use, so a program that names that stack is a better fit than a survey course.
Coursera search for nursing — a graduate-level or professional certificate that lines up with healthcare, not a generic professional-development aisle.
FlexJobs screens remote, hybrid, freelance, and flexible listings so you are not wading through unverified ads. This is a job-board search for Nurse Anesthetist work, not a claim that they list a counted SOC 29-1151 inventory.
Write a Nurse Anesthetist resume, or one aimed at Anesthesiologists, instead of a blank template. Resume Now is a resume builder; we are not claiming a counted template set for this SOC.
A Nurse Anesthetist resume that names the actual tasks on this page, or the step-up title Anesthesiologists, beats a blank template when you apply.
What Nurse Anesthetists earn by state
These are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own figures for Nurse Anesthetists, state by state — not a cost-of-living adjustment applied to the national number. Only states employing at least 500 people in the occupation are shown, because a state median drawn from a handful of workers is noise rather than a signal.
New York
$321,030
highest of them · +36% vs the national median
Oklahoma
$156,830
lowest of the 25 states that qualify · -34% vs the national median
The same job pays $164,200 more a year at the median in New York than in Oklahoma — 105% higher. That gap is what the Bureau measured, before any question of what it costs to live in either place. The top-of-range figure quoted at the head of this page, $416,000, is a different statistic in a different place: it is the 90th-percentile wage in Florida. The state that pays the typical worker most and the state where the best-paid go highest are not always the same one.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 29-1151. 25 states clear the 500-employee reporting floor for this occupation; those below it are left out rather than shown with a wide error band.
Free data. Use any of it.
PayCrunch publishes verified, BLS-sourced salary + AI-playbook data on 1,000+ professions — free, no signup.
No. Administering anesthesia is a high-stakes, hands-on, real-time practice — managing the airway, titrating drugs to a changing patient, and staying vigilant through every minute of a case, with full legal responsibility. AI drafts notes and surfaces evidence; it doesn't intubate, respond to a crashing blood pressure, or carry the liability. It's augmentation. CRNAs who use it document faster and decide sharper; the clinical judgment and vigilance remain entirely human.
Is it safe to use ChatGPT or AI tools as a CRNA?
Not with any protected health information. Consumer AI must never touch identifiable patient data. Use HIPAA-compliant, institution-approved tools for anything clinical, keep patient data inside your approved systems, and reserve general tools like ChatGPT, OpenEvidence, or UpToDate for board prep and guideline lookups phrased in general terms. And every AI output is decision support you verify — never a decision.
Can I trust an AI-drafted note or an AI risk score?
Only as a draft and a prompt to look harder, never as the final word. You must read, correct, and sign every ambient note before it enters the record, and confirm or overrule every risk flag with your own assessment. A 'low-risk' or 'normal' AI output must never reduce your vigilance — the accountability for the anesthetic and the record is entirely yours.
How does AI actually increase a CRNA's pay?
Indirectly but meaningfully. By clearing documentation and business admin and sharpening pre-op and evidence work, AI frees your time and attention for more cases, higher-acuity work, and — the biggest lever — running an efficient locum or independent 1099 practice. The top of the band is largely an independent-practice and productivity story, and AI reduces the overhead that eats into it.
Which AI tool should a CRNA prioritize?
Start with an institution-approved ambient documentation tool (Abridge, DAX Copilot, or Suki), because it saves time on every pre-op and clinic note. Add OpenEvidence or UpToDate for point-of-care evidence, and general tools like ChatGPT or Claude for CPC prep and the business side of independent practice. Learn the documentation tool first — it has the broadest daily impact.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.