Career profile Nurse Anesthetist

Table of Contents

• What does a Nurse Anesthetist do?
• What is a typical salary for a Nurse Anesthetist?
• What personality traits are common among Nurse Anesthetists?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Nurse Anesthetists need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Nurse Anesthetist do?

Nurse Anesthetists administer anesthesia, monitor patient's vital signs, and oversee patient recovery from anesthesia.

In addition, Nurse Anesthetists

• may assist anesthesiologists, surgeons, other physicians, or dentists,
• must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.

What kind of tasks does a Nurse Anesthetist perform regularly?

Nurse Anesthetists are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• 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.
• Perform or manage regional anesthetic techniques, such as local, spinal, epidural, caudal, nerve blocks and intravenous blocks.
• Develop anesthesia care plans.
• Obtain informed consent from patients for anesthesia procedures.
• Prepare prescribed solutions and administer local, intravenous, spinal, or other anesthetics, following specified methods and procedures.
• Perform pre-anesthetic screenings, including physical evaluations and patient interviews, and document results.
• Calibrate and test anesthesia equipment.
• Evaluate patients' post-surgical or post-anesthesia responses, taking appropriate corrective actions or requesting consultation if complications occur.
• Administer post-anesthesia medications or fluids to support patients' cardiovascular systems.
• Select and prescribe post-anesthesia medications or treatments to patients.
• Perform or evaluate the results of diagnostic tests, such as radiographs (x-rays) and electrocardiograms (EKGs).
• Select, order, or administer pre-anesthetic medications.
• Insert peripheral or central intravenous catheters.
• Insert arterial catheters or perform arterial punctures to obtain arterial blood samples.
• Discharge patients from post-anesthesia care.
• Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in audiology.
• Request anesthesia equipment repairs, adjustments, or safety tests.
• Instruct nurses, residents, interns, students, or other staff on topics such as anesthetic techniques, pain management and emergency responses.
• Disassemble and clean anesthesia equipment.

The above responsibilities are specific to Nurse Anesthetists. More generally, Nurse Anesthetists are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Nurse Anesthetist salary?

What personality traits are common among Nurse Anesthetists?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Nurse Anesthetist are usually higher in their Investigative, Realistic, and Social interests.

Nurse Anesthetists typically have very strong Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Also, Nurse Anesthetists typically have strong Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Lastly, Nurse Anesthetists typically have moderate Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Nurse Anesthetist tend to value Support, Relationships, and Achievement.

Most importantly, Nurse Anesthetists strongly value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Second, Nurse Anesthetists strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Lastly, Nurse Anesthetists moderately value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Nurse Anesthetists must consistently demonstrate qualities such as stress tolerance, dependability, and attention to detail.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Nurse Anesthetists, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Nurse Anesthetists need?

Many Nurse Anesthetists have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Nurse Anesthetists may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Nurse Anesthetists

• 0.8% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 0.1% completed high school or secondary school
• 0.4% completed some college coursework
• 1.3% earned a Associate's degree
• 10.2% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 72.1% earned a Master's degree
• 15.1% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Nurse Anesthetists

Important Abilities needed by Nurse Anesthetists

Nurse Anesthetists must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Nurse Anesthetists need abilities such as problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, and written comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Nurse Anesthetists, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Nurse Anesthetists

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Nurse Anesthetists frequently use skills like reading comprehension, critical thinking, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Nurse Anesthetists, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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