You graduate with a master's degree. Again, you have another mandatory board certification. Nurses view people as entire entities, and we care for the entire patient. Nurses have an ethic of caregiving and nurturing that is not part of the medical education process. It's a holistic view of a person and his or her experience.
Regional differences are huge.
I think it's going to be quite a bit higher now that we're in a relative shortage. There's always competition between nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists. Unfortunately, right now there's not enough of either group to do all the work that's out there. I liked its high intensity and skill level, but I also wanted a little more autonomy. In intensive care nursing, you are usually functioning off of protocols or physician's orders.