Nursing is often listed as one of the professions that is safest from AI and I am not here to disagree with that statement. But as AI continues to work its way into each and every profession it becomes increasingly crucial to analyze what the implementation of AI into healthcare looks like.
One aspect AI cannot replace is a meaningful interpersonal interaction and relationship. The foundations of nursing are laid out in your first nursing classes and there is a very specific accent on the importance of these interactions. It’s how you make patients feel comfortable and at home with your voice and your actions. While AI may be able to assist in the form of a translator or a note taker, you cannot replace the interpersonal connection.As for certain procedures such as administering IVs, taking vitals and giving medications — to name a few common ones — it is possible that over time these could be replaced with AI in some way or another. However, I would tend to argue that, at this point in time, most patients would not find it comforting to be treated by a robot.
So what is AI’s role right here right now? My answer would be efficiency. For example, charting is both incredibly time consuming and essential. It is done both during a patient interaction and directly afterwards, and a proper chart entry is detailed and leaves nothing up to interpretation.
Because a nurse typically works only three days a week, all the patient information needs to be recorded to make the transfer from nurse to nurse smooth and without loss of information. AI can and is being used to record an interaction between patient and nurse to document everything from health history to vitals. The information can then be reviewed by the nurse and added to the patient’s electronic medical record.
Over time, charting has shifted from paper to electronic and I believe a step further would be an acceptable implementation of AI into the healthcare setting. AI can have a place in healthcare but it should not be the goal to replace a nurse with it.
