AI-based technologies are helping solve complex problems in nearly every discipline, industry, and human endeavor. And in healthcare, artificial intelligence is a game-changer. By automating tasks and analyzing patient data, AI is poised to address key challenges, like workforce shortages and the need for personalized care. Yet, many nurses and other clinicians understandably have questions.
- How can we ensure AI is safe, equitable, and beneficial for all?
- How should healthcare professionals think about and integrate AI into clinical settings?
Nurses are at the heart of healthcare, and their expertise is essential in delivering safe, compassionate care. As AI evolves, nurses are uniquely positioned to guide its integration, ensuring these technologies amplify the human aspects of nursing. With AI handling routine or more administrative tasks, nurses can focus on what matters most: their patients.
In the first two episodes of an ongoing series exploring AI’s role in transforming healthcare, the SEE YOU NOW podcast spoke to veteran researcher and leading expert in computer science, machine learning, and AI, Peter Stone PhD, nurse attorney and bioethicist Liz Stokes JD, MA, RN, as well as Amy McCarthy, DNP, RNC-MNN, NE-BC, CENP, CNO at Hippocratic AI, and Scott Collado, product director at Hippocratic AI.
Here are a few of the key takeaways from these exciting conversations. For more, tune in to the episodes!
Reducing burnout, restoring joy
AI’s potential to alleviate nurse burnout and exhaustion is profound. By redesigning work environments and automating routine tasks, AI allows nurses to focus on meaningful, patient-centered care. McCarthy highlighted the moral injury many clinicians experience due to workforce shortages. “When I speak with nurses, and even for myself, I think about some of the distress that I had just as a clinician…not being able to care for all the people I wanted to care for in the way I wanted,” she shared. “When I look at these agents and the technology that we’re using, what I see is it’s helping to augment and solve that problem.”
AI tools not only enhance clinical care but also support nurses by increasing the capacity to deliver care. This expansion ensures patients feel well cared for, reducing the experience of moral injury and restoring joy to the profession.
Collaboration with nurses is crucial for AI development
Nurses spend the most time with patients and providing critical insights that guide treatment decisions. This hands-on experience makes them uniquely qualified to shape how AI tools should be developed and integrated into the healthcare system. As the nation’s most trusted profession, nurses understand the importance of maintaining ethical standards in every aspect of healthcare, including the adoption of new technologies.
We don’t want to take the human element out of care. Care is a very personal, intimate, and human act, and AI should be used to amplify the humanity and human touch in care.
“We have heard from a lot of nurses who have said, ‘Help me understand what this is, so I can make sure that I am using it safely,’” Stokes said. “The fear factor enters the picture…but people have their eyes open and are asking questions.”
Those questions are exactly why McCarthy and the Hippocratic AI team are working to roll out AI educational resources for clinicians.
“My role is truly a bridge between nursing and the tech space,” McCarthy explained. “We are creating the first AI certification for nurses…to ensure that their questions are answered, and that they understand how AI interfaces with the work they do every day, and how valuable their voice is.”
Collado reinforced this sentiment: “The number one thing that I am most cautious about as we make product and engineering decisions is listening to our clinicians in the room.”
Nurses are central to patient outcomes – and AI outputs
As Stone says, an important starting point is recognizing that AI is a collection of many different technologies. Predictive models and machine learning tools must be combined with “domain experts.” In other words, the people who understand the processes and workflows are best suited to figure out how to best build and deploy solutions in a way that benefits patients and healthcare workers.
AI can automate many repetitive tasks—such as managing patient records and generating reports—freeing nurses to focus on what truly matters: clinical judgment, empathy, and patient advocacy. As Stone explains, AI tools are meant to eliminate "the drudgery" of routine tasks, while leaving “time and space for people to bring what they're best at” to their roles.
In practice, this might mean AI systems that predict health risks based on patient data or assist in decision-making. By helping nurses make more informed choices and respond to emergencies faster, AI can ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Additionally, because nurses are largely responsible for healthcare documentation, the ability of predictive AI models to successfully anticipate outcomes will also depend on nurses.
“That prediction is based on the information that is input,” Stokes said. “That’s where nursing really has such an impact, because we know the majority of information that is put into our health systems, especially our documentation, comes from nursing.”
Nurses’ clinical skills and intuition are irreplaceable, and they will be essential in ensuring AI enhances care without overshadowing the human aspects of healthcare.
AI as a partner, not a replacement
Picture a healthcare environment where nurses can dedicate more time to patients and families who need hands-on support.
"There's this concept that I think we're sort of chasing in health care, which is as a patient, it feels that my health system knows me and cares about my health,” Collado said. “And I think we do an excellent job when the patient is in the room. And this is a credit to all the nurses and clinicians who make sure that they are well cared for. But when they leave, the bandwidth becomes a really challenging problem. How do I continue to check in with these patients? That to me is the essence of what we're building. How do we increase that access?"
Additionally, AI can’t replace the intuition, empathy, and clinical judgment that nurses bring to patient care. Instead, it should serve as a tool to amplify those qualities.
“We don’t want to take the human element out of care,” said Stone. “Care is a very personal, intimate, and human act, and AI should be used to amplify the humanity and human touch in care.”
That said, nurses will increasingly be required to stay informed and adapt to the changing landscape. AI literacy is quickly becoming a crucial part of nursing education. Nurses won’t need to be tech experts, but they do need to understand how to effectively integrate AI into their practice to make informed decisions. By embracing AI as a partner, nurses will be empowered to provide even more personalized, compassionate care.
A bright future with AI
AI is already transforming healthcare, with the potential to revolutionize patient care. By predicting health outcomes, automating routine tasks, and supporting nurses, we’re on the brink of a new era in healthcare.
“I'm really excited,” Stokes said. “If you take account of where we are as a human evolution, that we are here with this massive technology that's really able to give us such incredible accuracy and predictability and a way that we have never, as a species, had before – it's very remarkable.”
