Anaesthetist
Anaesthetists are specialist doctors who keep a patient safe, asleep and free of pain during surgery, then manage their pain afterwards.
- Median salary
- $431,200
3.6%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 7,400
2.8%vs last year
- Projected growth
- +33.2%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Low
- 3 out of 10
- Average hours
- 46/wk
+6h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- In shortage
national
- You would work mainly in hospital operating theatres, along with pre-admission clinics, labour wards, emergency departments and pain clinics.
- The role differs from intensive care medicine: an anaesthetist manages one patient through a procedure, while an intensive care specialist looks after critically ill people over days and weeks.
- Getting there takes a medical degree, several years of hospital work and specialist training with the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, then registration with AHPRA.
How much do anaesthetists earn?
The median full-time salary for an anaesthetist is $431,200 per annum, before tax, up $92,100 since 2018.
Public hospital staff specialists sit on a state enterprise agreement with set bands, while private practice income comes from a fee for each procedure you do, so two anaesthetists in the same city can earn quite different amounts. Where you live counts as well, because rural and remote posts usually pay more and carry allowances for covering the call roster. If you take an offer from a private group, ask how the lists are billed, how fees are split, and whether time on call is paid separately or included in the share.
What does an anaesthetist do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Reviewing a patient's history, test results and medications before surgery, then deciding which anaesthetic is safe for them
- Inserting intravenous lines and, for some operations, placing ultrasound-guided nerve blocks or spinal injections
- Inducing anaesthesia and securing the airway, which may mean a breathing tube, a laryngeal mask or a mask held by hand
- Watching blood pressure, heart rhythm, breathing and depth of anaesthesia through the operation and adjusting drugs as the patient responds
- Handing over to recovery staff and writing a pain plan for the hours afterwards
What skills do anaesthetists need?
Employers look for patient care and support, medication management, clinical assessment and treatment, backed by Anaesthesia delivery systems fluency and strong attention to detail.
Specialist skills
- Patient care and support
- Medication management
- Clinical assessment and treatment
- Emergency response
- Care planning and coordination
Software and tools
- Anaesthesia delivery systems
- Physiological monitors
- Ultrasound machines
- Electronic medical records (Epic, Cerner)
- Airway management equipment
General skills
- Attention to detail
- Written communication
- Problem solving
Is the job growing?
About 7,400 people work as anaesthetists in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 33.2% over the decade to 2035. That's very strong growth. Few roles in Australia are expanding this fast, and it points to solid demand for years to come.
How do you become an anaesthetist?
Here's the path most anaesthetists take, step by step.
- 1Medical degree
Five to seven years at university, either straight from school or through a graduate entry course that starts from an undergraduate degree. It includes clinical placements in hospitals, and entry is competitive on ATAR or GPA.
- 2Internship and general registration
One supervised year in a hospital after graduating, which gives you general registration through the Medical Board of Australia (AHPRA). You rotate through specialties and begin managing patients with less supervision.
- 3Resident medical officer years
Two or more years working in hospital teams, ideally with rotations in anaesthesia, intensive care and emergency medicine. This is when you build the references and the record that a training place depends on.
- 4Anaesthesia training program
Five years with the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, including formal examinations, rotations through intensive care and pain medicine, and steadily more time working alone at the head of the bed.
- 5Fellowship and specialist registration
Fellowship of the college plus specialist registration with AHPRA lets you work as a consultant. Many anaesthetists then take a year in a subspecialty fellowship, such as paediatric, cardiac or obstetric anaesthesia, before settling into a hospital post or private practice.
Ready to apply as an anaesthetist?
Whether you're working toward becoming an anaesthetist or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can an anaesthetist move to?
None of the roles anaesthetists typically move into pay more than the role itself. Intensive Care Specialist is the closest match. If a bigger salary is the goal, moving up into a senior or principal position within the role is usually the faster route than moving sideways.
- Intensive Care SpecialistSuggested move$223,600−$207,600
Thick lines are moves people were recorded making in Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility (income tax records, 2011-12 to 2020-21). Thin lines are moves we suggest from skill overlap and entry requirements.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
Intensive Care Specialist Anaesthetists bring advanced airway and critical care skills to intensive care, though formal intensive care training is required. | −$207,600 | 64% | requalify |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as an anaesthetist?
The typical anaesthetist is 49 years old; 68% are men, 90% work full-time, and full-timers average 46 hours a week.
- 49
- Median age
- 32%
- Female share
- 90%
- Full-time
- +6h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being an anaesthetist?
You will spend most of your theatre time at the head of the bed, watching monitors and adjusting drugs while the surgeon works, and long quiet stretches are interrupted by moments that need an immediate decision. The hours are long and irregular: early list starts, late finishes and overnight call, on top of the knowledge that a patient's airway is yours to manage. Some anaesthetists take to the technical precision and the calm repetition, and to meeting someone, fixing their pain and handing them on within a few hours. Others find the early mornings, the sitting and the absence of ongoing relationships with patients tiring after a decade or so.
What people like
- Procedures finish and patients move on. You meet someone in pre-admission, take them through the operation and hand them to recovery, so you rarely carry a long ward list around with you.
- Precision you can keep improving. Securing a difficult airway or getting a nerve block in exactly the right place is a skill you refine for decades, and you can usually tell straight away whether it worked.
- You can control your working week. Once you have your fellowship, part-time hospital work and private lists are both common, so many anaesthetists choose how many days they work as their family circumstances change.
- A close professional group. With a few thousand specialists across the country, colleagues in different hospitals know each other, cover each other's rosters and pass on the work that suits you.
What people find hard
- Early starts and long lists. Theatre lists begin early and run in sequence, so a day of standing and concentrating leaves you tired even when every case goes smoothly.
- Overnight and weekend call. Emergency caesareans, trauma and blocked airways come in at any hour, and a broken night often sits in front of a full list the next morning.
- Delays you cannot do anything about. An emergency case can push an elective list back by hours, and you are stuck waiting for a theatre, a surgeon or a bed before you can start.
- Attention you cannot switch off. A patient's airway can close in seconds, so the work needs a level of vigilance that some people find hard to sustain across a whole career.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ anaesthetists?
Health Care and Social Assistance employs the largest share of anaesthetists.
Top employing industries
- 1Health Care and Social Assistance
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Postgraduate | 50.3% | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree | 46.7% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 0.7% | |
| Year 12 or below | 0.2% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 0% |
Will AI replace anaesthetists?
Low exposure. Unlikely. AI will change some of the work around this job, not the job itself.
There is very little here that software can take over, because the moments that matter happen at the patient's airway and are read from a monitor trace that changes second by second. Automated drug delivery, depth-of-anaesthesia monitoring and electronic records have tidied up dosing and paperwork, and they leave the judgement about how much to give, and when to step in, with the doctor at the head of the bed. As you move through the college program, get properly familiar with the monitoring and ultrasound equipment, since hands-on airway skill is what selection panels and employers watch for.
How a typical week splits
- Anaesthetic record and billing paperwork20% of the week
Templates and voice-to-text notes now draft most of the anaesthetic record and the billing entries for you to check, which has cut the time spent writing after a list.
- Pre-admission assessment and anaesthetic planning20% of the week
Risk scoring tools and the electronic record pull together test results and medication lists, but deciding what is safe for someone with a difficult airway or failing heart remains a clinical call.
- Monitoring and adjusting anaesthesia during the operation35% of the week
Target-controlled infusion pumps calculate doses from a model, yet you are the one reading blood pressure, heart rhythm and the depth trace and changing course when the patient responds differently.
- Induction and airway management25% of the week
Getting a tube or a laryngeal mask into a patient who cannot be ventilated is a hands-on skill, and video laryngoscopes improve the view without doing the work.
How we work this out
We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.
Common questions about becoming an anaesthetist
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do anaesthetists earn?
Median full-time pay is $431,200 per year before tax, and public hospital specialists sit on state enterprise agreements with published bands. Private practice is billed per procedure, so earnings rise with the number of lists you run and the call you take. When you compare private groups, ask how fees are split and whether call cover is paid on top.
How do you become an anaesthetist?
You need a medical degree, then an internship and a few years as a resident medical officer before applying to the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists training program. That program runs five years and includes examinations, rotations through intensive care and pain medicine, and supervised operating lists. Ask for anaesthesia rotations early in your hospital years, because that experience is what a selection panel looks at.
Are anaesthetists in demand?
Anaesthetists are currently in shortage nationally, and employment is projected to grow 33.2% over the decade to 2035. Training takes at least a decade from the start of medical school, so the workforce grows slowly and hospital and day-surgery services plan years ahead. The training network you join often decides which hospitals you end up working in for years afterwards, so weigh that choice carefully.
Will AI replace anaesthetists?
Software does not do much of this job: securing an airway, judging depth of anaesthesia and deciding a dose mid-operation are physical, second-by-second judgements. Where technology has arrived, it is in drug delivery pumps, depth-of-anaesthesia monitors and the electronic record, which reduce paperwork and help with dosing while leaving the decisions with the anaesthetist. For anyone coming through the college program, getting fluent with ultrasound-guided blocks and the monitoring kit is time well spent.
What else can an anaesthetist do?
Anaesthetists who move into intensive care take their airway and critical care skills with them, though the move needs formal intensive care training and pays $207,600 less than anaesthesia. General practitioners and resident medical officers move in the other direction by entering anaesthesia training, which builds on the assessment and hospital experience they already have. Plenty of anaesthetists also set up a private practice, usually joining a group that runs its own lists, which ties income to how much operating you do and leaves you covering rooms, staff and indemnity insurance yourself.
How many hours do anaesthetists work?
Full-time anaesthetists average 46 hours a week, and much of that falls outside ordinary office hours because emergency surgery runs around the clock. When you look at a post, ask how the call roster is shared, since some groups cover one night in three and others one in eight.
Related roles
- Intensive Care Specialist
- General Practitioner
- Resident Medical Officer
- Intensive Care Paramedic
- Surgeon
- Rheumatologist
Not sure this is you? Take the career quiz and get a ranked shortlist of roles that fit how you like to work.
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