Nursing CE Central
Nurses throughout the country kicked off the new year advocating for patient protections against artificial intelligence.
“Patient advocacy is at the core of what we do as nurses,” National Nurses United (NNU) President Nancy Hagans, RN, said in a statement. “That’s why we’re demanding safe staffing and protections against untested technologies such as A.I. We see the harm that these cost-cutting schemes cause our patients on a daily basis.”
At the same time, universities and medical centers are touting AI-influenced innovations that they believe will improve patient care.
California nurses were among those voicing their concerns about AI, with about 100 people marching in mid-January from Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center to Dignity Health Methodist Hospital.
“Nurses are not against AI,” Kathy Dennis, a nurse at Dignity Health’s Mercy General Hospital who serves on the California Nurses Association board, told the Sacramento Bee. “Technology can help. But technology can’t take over a nurse’s judgment, a nurse’s knowledge and assessment.”
NNU, which published a “guiding principles” document for AI in nursing, contends that healthcare leaders are using the “myth of the nurse shortage” to justify using AI technology.
“The truth is there is no nurse shortage,” NNU stated in a January memo. There is only a shortage of nurses willing to care for patients under the working conditions set by the hospital industry. Promoting the myth of the nurse shortage ignores both the lived experiences of nurses who take care of patients day in and day out and the industry’s systematic failure to invest in safe, quality, human-to-human patient care.”
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A 2024 NNU survey found that 60% of respondents did not agree with the statement, “I trust my employer will implement AI with patient safety as the first priority.” It also revealed that about 29% of nurses reported not being able to change “assessments or categorizations” created by AI.
However, the World Economic Forum has touted the positives of intelligent automation in healthcare, arguing that it can reduce workloads and improve access for patients, and AI tools like agentic AI.
“Agentic AI – paired with existing automation technology – has the potential to streamline administrative tasks while extending healthcare workers’ expertise to reach more patients without additional strain, enabling the most essential task of any healthcare system: providing direct care to patients,” wrote Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., who is the president and chief executive officer of the Mayo Clinic.
Various media reports and research published in the past few years have indicated that AI could result in cost-savings for healthcare institutions.
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) recently opened a remote fetal monitoring center that uses AI technology that allows the team to monitor in real-time “any abnormalities in fetal heart rate or uterine contraction patterns.” However, nurses at the Neonatal Outcomes Impacted by Escalation Safety Telemetry (NEST) center review and act on the data, according to UMMS.
“By integrating our experienced nurses with cutting-edge AI technology, we are setting the highest benchmarks for safety and equity in maternal and fetal health care across our Labor and Delivery units,” said Dr. Donna Neale, an associate professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Over time, we also hope the data from NEST will contribute to nationwide research aimed at improving perinatal outcomes.”
AORN Syntegrity recently published an article exploring the benefits of AI in the operating room, noting that the technology, such as chatbots, is intended to support nurses rather than replace them. Beth Kaylor, RN, CAPS, CSPO, wrote that nursing is “rooted in critical thinking” — something machines can replicate.
Several nurses started the new year by expressing concerns about the rapid implementation of artificial intelligence to industry workflows. While they aren’t wholly opposed to the technology, they do want a seat at the table in how it’s implemented and urge caution in its use. Others, however, have established programs with an AI element that they believe will help improve patient care.
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