Skip to content
TryHired.
Role hub · Nurse Anesthetists

CRNA: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of crnas earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$236,590
Hourly
$113.75
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

CRNAs administer anesthesia, monitor patient's vital signs, and oversee patient recovery from anesthesia. The median pay is $236,590 a year ($113.75 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a doctoral degree (56% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$236,590
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
51,840
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Most common education
Doctoral Degree
56% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Nurse Anesthetists (O*NET-SOC 29-1151.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Explore the role

Every page for CRNAs

SalaryCRNA salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeCRNA how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →Interview questionsCRNA interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What crnas do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Manage patients' airway or pulmonary status, using techniques such as endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, pharmacological support, respiratory therapy, and extubation.
  2. Respond to emergency situations by providing airway management, administering emergency fluids or drugs, or using basic or advanced cardiac life support techniques.
  3. Monitor patients' responses, including skin color, pupil dilation, pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, ventilation, or urine output, using invasive and noninvasive techniques.
  4. Select, order, or administer anesthetics, adjuvant drugs, accessory drugs, fluids or blood products as necessary.
  5. Select, prepare, or use equipment, monitors, supplies, or drugs for the administration of anesthetics.
  6. Assess patients' medical histories to predict anesthesia response.
  7. Perform or manage regional anesthetic techniques, such as local, spinal, epidural, caudal, nerve blocks and intravenous blocks.
  8. Develop anesthesia care plans.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Reading ComprehensioncoreCritical ThinkingcoreComplex Problem SolvingcoreJudgment and Decision MakingActive ListeningSpeakingActive LearningMonitoringSocial Perceptiveness

Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, Customer and Personal Service, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Education and Training.

Tools and technology

Software crnas use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Epic SystemsMedical softwareIn demand
  • Patient management softwareMedical softwareIn demand
  • MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • eClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • AetherPalm InfusiCalcMedical software
  • Allscripts Professional EHRMedical software
  • Amkai AmkaiChartsMedical software
  • Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMRMedical software
  • Cerner MillenniumMedical software
  • ChartWare EMRMedical software
  • Drug database softwareMedical software
  • EDImis Anesthesia ManagerMedical software

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

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).