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Nurse Anesthetists vs Surgical Assistants

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Nurse Anesthetists and Surgical Assistants on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Nurse Anesthetists Surgical Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$223,210
$60,290
Employment · BLS OEWS
50,350
22,860
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
21st pct
2nd pct

At a glance

Dimension Nurse Anesthetists Surgical Assistants
Median pay $223,210 $60,290
Employment 50,350 22,860
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+8.6%) About average (+5.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,700 1,600
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree). Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 21st pct Low · 2nd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 47th pct · 25% of tasks —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No —

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Medicine and Dentistry, Problem Sensitivity, Customer and Personal Service, Biology, Education and Training, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Information Ordering, Active Listening, Speaking, Monitoring, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Oral Expression, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Speech Clarity, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Speech Recognition, Selective Attention, Writing, Learning Strategies, Coordination, Category Flexibility, Perceptual Speed.

Specific to Nurse Anesthetists

  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • Psychology
  • Active Learning
  • Physics
  • Science
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Time Management

Specific to Surgical Assistants

  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Control Precision
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Flexibility of Closure

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software .

Specific to Nurse Anesthetists

Specific to Surgical Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Nurse Anesthetists or Surgical Assistants — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Nurse Anesthetists vs Surgical Assistants." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/nurse-anesthetists-vs-surgical-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Nurse Anesthetists vs Surgical Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/nurse-anesthetists-vs-surgical-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-nurse-anesthetists-vs-surgical-assistants,
  title  = {Nurse Anesthetists vs Surgical Assistants},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/nurse-anesthetists-vs-surgical-assistants}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.