TLDR; AI is not (physically, emotionally and mentally) intelligent enough to replace nurses.
NurseBrain sits at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Nursing. Just like everyone else, we’ve observed the staggering pace at which AI and robotics are advancing. We’re aware of the growing partnerships between hospitals and AI companies, and we understand why many nurses might worry about their jobs being potentially replaced by these groundbreaking technologies. However, if you’re a nurse, we have good news for you: AI will not replace nursing; instead, it will help you perform your job better!
Nursing care is highly complex, nuanced, intuitive, and emotional. As nurses, we often sacrifice our well-being to bring a semblance of order to what can be a chaotic environment, a dedication that leads to many of us experiencing burnout. Nursing care, or rather nurse workload, isn’t just a set of tasks to perform for each patient. It broadly consists of three categories: direct patient care, indirect patient care, and non-patient care. AI cannot effectively manage the variability within nurse workloads, nor can it delegate or prioritize these tasks, especially when a significant portion of the data points needed by AI are neither digital nor objective.
Additionally, there are many other factors (regulatory, legal, unions, social issues, safety concerns including hallucinations, etc.) that prevent AI from replacing nurses. Instead of fearing AI, nurses should explore ways to leverage it to lighten their workloads and enhance the quality of patient care. Obvious use cases include reducing nursing documentation, automating mundane tasks, and providing evidence-based clinical recommendations.
Let’s embrace AI, not fear it. AI is not here to replace us but to assist us in practicing at the top of our licenses! Download NurseBrain to discover how we’re using AI to reduce nurse burnout and boost efficiency.