Nurse Anesthetist – Career and Education Profile
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Nurse anesthetists assist medical teams during surgery or other minor procedures to provide anesthesia-related care to patients during and surrounding a surgery.
Job Responsibilities
As a nurse anesthetist, you’ll work with a patient leading up to surgery to help prepare them from the anesthesia, as well as monitor a patient after the procedure, but most of the work you’ll do is during the actual surgery. Nurse anesthetists can work as part of an anesthesia team, but in all states, being a certified registered nurse anesthetist in this field means that you can also work solo, providing complete anesthesia care to a patient. You can also help doctors create a pain management plan for a recovering patients.
Salary and Career Options
Nurse anesthetists earn the highest salaries of all nurses, on average. This this kind of education and experience, you can easily earn a six figure salary, and many nurse anesthetists earn $120,000 to $150,000 annually. Most nurse anesthetists work as general staff nurses, surgical nurses, or anesthetist assistants before working as a nurse anesthetist. You can also make more money by working with special-needs patients where anesthesia administration is more complicated, such as working with children or people with allergies.
Educational Requirements
In order to work as a nurse anesthetist, you must first get licensed as an RN, which requires at least an associate’s degree in nursing. You’ll need to earn a BSN eventually, which you can do from the start (skipping the associate’s degree), or with you can do through an RN-to-BSN program. After working in the field, you’ll need to earn a masters degree in nursing, specializing in anesthesia, and some nurses opt to earn a doctorate. Once you have experience in the field as an RN and earn at least your master’s degree, you’ll need to take the certification exam offered by the the National Board on Certification & Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists, which allows you to begin working as a certified nurse anesthetist.
LPN to RN College Programs
While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.
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Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road. |
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The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees. |
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Select a subject and degree level, then click "Find My Degree" to browse 100+ online nursing schools offering relevant accredited programs. |
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Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school. |
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Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs. |
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Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school. |
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