Do you think AI will replace Nurses one day?

[Pinkterton1234]

Do you think AI will replace Nurses one day?  I've heard things about healthcare companies in the states using AI to program their telehealth programs for patients seeking virtual healthcare, I wonder if it will be a common thing for them to replace nurses that would be working there instead with their preprogrammed algorithm? I also wonder if floor nurses would be impacted by this, a hospital in my city has a humanoid robot that can take vital signs and this was implemented years ago.

[Ricca89]

AI will not replace nurses in hands on personal care such as the dreaded Code Brown however, it may start titrating all of the IV drips, administer all the medications and document vital signs. I think administrators will be the first to be replaced by AI. I could see AI enabling critical care units to be staffed by LVN or patient care techs, I think the medical surgical ward RNs will be a bit harder to phase out. 

[NurseAbi]

Until AI can roll up a fresh dookie while placing a fitted sheet underneath I'm not going to be concerned.

[Mrlabrie, ASN, CNA, RN]

https://nurse.org/articles/nurse-robots/
 

not sure if  some of the readers on this thread realize how much "nurse robots" are already utilized in healthcare 

[heron, ASN, RN]

Google "AI+hallucination" - and, yes, it's a thing.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Mrlabrie said:

https://nurse.org/articles/nurse-robots/
 

not sure if  some of the readers on this thread realize how much "nurse robots" are already utilized in healthcare 

We have those TUGs at work. They deliver supplies, pick up lab specimens...they take the elevators on their own and sometimes cause traffic in the hallways. 

[akulahawkRN, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

On the whole, I do not see "AI" replacing the bedside nurse in the upcoming few decades. There's just too many tasks that rely on human intervention to accomplish in an appropriate manner. I see AI becoming a virtual assistant to the nurse, RT, and medical provider though. With various medical equipment eventually gaining an AI interface and becoming able to make/recommend certain adjustments based on newly acquired data, the role/duties of the RN, RT, and Provider will end up changing. 

However, until we have something more akin to a "Bio Bed" from Star Trek available, I don't see an "AutoDoc" being even practical let alone actually possible. Even then, human hands will still be needed to do certain tasks. However, once anti-gravity beds are developed, humans won't be needed much as we'll (literally) float pressure wound prone patients and bed baths will become something more like a car wash today... 😉

That all being said, having a pump auto-titrate vasoactive meds on a moment-to-moment basis would be a nice thing. Set it up, tell it the rules and let it run... and then you verify that it's doing what it is supposed to do.