No, robots are not about to take over nursing, but the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to transform nursing across all areas of practice, including administration, clinical care, education, policy, and research.
As AI Health Technologies (AIHTs) continue to evolve, there is a need for curricular reform and the development of competencies that will enable Ontario’s nurses to thrive in an AI-driven healthcare environment.
The growing influence of AI in nursing education
Researchers have identified two key areas where AI is expected to have a profound impact in nursing: academic institutions and clinical practice. In academic settings, AI is already being used to enhance simulation-based learning, with technologies such as humanoid robots, cyborgs, and face-tracking software becoming more prevalent.
These tools allow nurse educators to create more realistic and tailored simulation experiences, helping students to develop critical clinical judgement and decision-making skills.
For instance, face-tracking software has the ability to analyze students’ emotions during simulations, providing educators with valuable insights into their stress levels, engagement, and understanding of the scenarios. While not in use yet, this information could enable educators to adjust the simulations in real-time, ensuring that each student receives the support they need to succeed.
Closer on the horizon, predictive analytics, powered by machine learning (ML), can be used to assess students’ clinical decision-making processes, allowing educators to identify areas where additional training may be required.
Richard Booth, an assistant professor at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing in London, Ontario, says there’s a critical need for nurses to understand and engage with emerging technologies.
He told Canadian Nurse that if the nursing profession does not take an active role in the development and implementation of these technologies, both the profession and patient care could be negatively impacted.
“If we don’t mediate this technology, someone will do it for us,” he said, stressing that nurses must be proactive in shaping the future of their work, particularly as some predictable and less complex nursing tasks are likely to be automated.
Booth advocates for nurses to take the lead in determining which aspects of their roles can be automated and which should remain under human control. By guiding the integration of AI and automated systems, nurses can ensure that the more holistic and compassionate elements of patient care are preserved.
“We need to give technology nurses’ roles in a deliberate manner to ensure it fits the needs of our patients.”
Certain tasks, such as information management and physical tasks like portering and supply delivery, could be appropriate for automation, he added.
Increased involvement in the technological evolution of healthcare could also offer career benefits for nurses. Booth predicts that nurses who embrace these changes will likely see greater opportunities for career advancement, similar to what has been observed in industries like food services and manufacturing. As automation becomes more prevalent, Booth envisions many nurses will transition into higher-level roles, overseeing patient care and coordinating the activities of other workers and technologies to ensure that care is delivered effectively and appropriately.
Curricular reform and the integration of AI in nursing education
To prepare nurses for the future, curricular reform is urgently needed in both academic institutions and clinical practice settings. Courses and training must be updated to include AI and digital health technologies, ensuring that nurses are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to work effectively in an AI-driven healthcare system. This includes integrating informatics, digital literacy, and ML into the nursing curriculum, as well as possibly developing new specialties such as a nurse-engineer role.
A nurse-engineer role could combine nursing principles with engineering concepts, allowing nurses to co-design AIHTs and contribute to their development and implementation. By involving nurses in the design process, healthcare organizations can ensure that the technologies being developed are practical, user-friendly, and aligned with the needs of both patients and healthcare providers.
In addition to curricular reform, nurse educators must incorporate AI to better support students at all levels of education. This might involve collaborating with information technologists, robotics experts, and computer programmers to create multidisciplinary learning experiences.
By working together, these professionals can bridge skills gaps in nursing and support the development of new roles, such as clinical data scientists, medical software engineers, and digital medicine specialists.
The role of professional development in preparing nurses for AI
As AIHTs become more pervasive in the healthcare system, ongoing professional development will be essential to ensure that practicing nurses maintain relevant competencies and skills.
Professional development opportunities, such as courses and workshops, should be tailored to the specific needs of different groups, including point-of-care nurses, nurse educators, and nursing informaticians. For example, nurse educators may require training on how to incorporate AI into their teaching practices, while clinical nurses may need support in using AI-powered predictive analytics to improve patient care.
Nursing informaticians, in particular, will play a crucial role in establishing a strong foundation of evidence regarding the necessity of nursing data. This data can be used to inform professional development workshops and clinical competencies, ensuring that nurses are prepared to work with AIHTs in their practice settings. Moreover, examining predictive analytics models in the clinical setting can help build capacity among less experienced nurses, enabling them to understand and apply AI’s personalized decision-making processes.
In 2020, The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario released a report with 15 recommendations intended to “support efforts to prepare nurses and nursing students to leverage AIHTs to augment the patient experience while ensuring the delivery of high-quality, clinical, person-centred compassionate nursing care; and facilitate the successful interface of relevant emerging AIHTs within the nursing profession.”
Among these recommendations, it identified 8 areas for immediate action, including:
- Identify new care delivery models, responsibilities and competencies for nurses in all roles and sectors to support the interface between nursing science, person- and family-centred compassionate care and AI.
- Conduct a thorough review and reform of nursing curricula to ensure congruency of the nursing role with present needs and future demands of emerging AIHTs.
- Develop a strategic plan to build capacity for basic informatics skills and data/digital literacy in the existing and future nursing workforce.
- Implement new and revised professional codes of ethics and standards of practice that articulate nurses’ responsibilities and accountabilities in relation to the use of AIHTs.
- Prioritize rigorous, nurse-led interprofessional research to inform policies and procedures to support the co-design, development, implementation and evaluation of AIHTs in nursing.
The future of nursing: balancing technology and compassionate care
While AIHTs have the potential to revolutionize nursing practice, it is essential that the nursing profession does not lose sight of its core values, including compassionate care.
As AI technologies become more integrated into healthcare, nurses must be equipped with the skills to balance the human caring needs of their patients with the technological advancements at their disposal. This will require a deep understanding of how AIHTs can be used to support, rather than replace, the nurse-patient relationship.
For example, virtual avatar apps that simulate human conversations can be used to provide patients with additional education, coping strategies, and mental health support. Social robots with natural language processing abilities can offer companionship to residents in long-term care homes, helping to alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation. However, it is crucial that nurses remain actively involved in these interactions, using their expertise and empathy to ensure that the technology is being used in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, the quality of care.
Dr. Alex Wong, Canada Research Chair for Artificial Intelligence, told CBC that rural Canadians will see “an even greater impact” as the science helps doctors, nurses and specialists in regions with fewer staff and resources are even more limited.
“That’s where AI can really come into place,” Dr. Wong said.
According to Dr. Wong, some of the areas where AIHTs will change the workplace include:
- Organizing the mountain of paperwork that human staff have to handle currently.
- Taking stress off the system by making patient records and histories much easier to access.
- Assisting with staff scheduling, with a focus on anticipating when shortages will crop up.
- Examining X-rays, MRI scans, CT scans and other digital images that doctors and specialists now study, and providing extremely accurate diagnoses.
He added that some of those tasks are already being carried out by AI health systems in Toronto and Montreal.
One example is the work of José Côté, a professor at the Université de Montréal, who has pioneered a virtual nursing platform named TAVIE (Traitement, assistance virtuelle infirmière et enseignement).
This innovative system uses pre-recorded nurse videos to help patients manage their health conditions and make behaviour changes. As patients interact with the platform by answering multiple-choice questions, an algorithm selects the most appropriate video to play. The personalized nature of these videos, combined with the empathetic expressions of the virtual nurse, has resonated deeply with patients. She says that patients work with the virtual nurses and that the system has been effective in helping HIV patients improve their medication adherence.
Côté views technology as a valuable ally in nursing, one that enhances rather than diminishes the role of the nurse. She believes that virtual interventions like TAVIE are most successful when they are integrated into traditional care, with nurses encouraging patients to engage with the technology during routine visits.
This integration not only complements the care provided by nurses but also strengthens the bond between nurse and patient, she told Nurse Magazine. Looking forward, Côté envisions a future where interconnected home and hospital systems enable nurses to provide more timely, personalized advice based on ongoing patient feedback, thereby extending the nurse’s role beyond the confines of the hospital.
Embracing AI in Nursing Education and Practice
The emergence of AIHTs presents both challenges and opportunities for the nursing profession. To ensure that nurses are prepared to meet the demands of an AI-driven healthcare system, significant changes are needed in nursing education and professional development.
At the same time, it is essential that the nursing profession remains committed to its core values of compassionate care. By striking the right balance between technology and human interaction, nurses can ensure that they continue to provide high-quality, person-centered care in the age of AI.
As the largest group of regulated health professionals in Canada, nurses have a unique opportunity to shape the future of healthcare by embracing AI and using it to enhance their practice and improve patient outcomes.
