Capt. Indira Rani has proven her leadership in diverse arenas including Indian military hospitals, prestigious teaching roles in AFMC, Escorts Heart Institute, Medanta Medicity, Max Ventures and presently she is associated with Jaypeee Hospital as Chief of nursing. She has presented many scientific papers, organized and attended workshops, conferences at national and international forums.
A scenario where robots using AIs would come up and say…. Hello sir, this is robot nurse Sophy, I need to give IV antibiotic, may I inject, sir?
AI is revolutionizing the healthcare industry and driving it towards digital transformation. AI algorithms and robots are altering the nurse’s role and challenging the profession and the very true essence of nursing: The human connection.
AI is the ability of a machine to emulate intelligent human behaviours and represents an umbrella term for machine learning (ML), computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP) technologies.AI is already changing the patient experience, how clinicians practice medicine, and how the pharmaceutical industry operates.
In a single day or shift, nurses have to juggle a number of tasks woven with hospital accreditation standards from general patient care and monitoring to administering medications and treatments to communicating with doctors. They also have to stay on top of administrative tasks like charting patient records, interacting with insurance providers, and handling other types of paperwork. Robots and AI in healthcare facilities will augment and automate some tasks, allowing nurses more time to care for their patients.
In future, artificial intelligence-enabled robotics may act as assistants to nurses, freeing staff to dedicate in,evidence-based care and focus on human element of nursing. Nurses will likely become more patient-centric and focused as AI absorbs more of the routine work.
With the future practice of nursing in a technologically advanced AI health care settings, It is question how human nurses can preserve the very true essence of nursing? Nurses should be involved in deciding which aspects of their practice can be delegated to technology and oversee the introduction of automated technology and artificial intelligence ensuring they practice on holistic care while embracing the artificial intelligence to achieve predictable patient outcomes.
Since the AI in healthcare has started coming up, variety of ethical implications come along too. Healthcare decisions exclusively made by the humans in the past, and the use of smart AIs to work would raise the issues of accountability, transparency and privacy. Nurses know the difference between being “cared for” and “caring”, Cared for him not just his body but his soul too. Over the course of a nurse’s shift, conflicts may come from differing opinions, personality clashes among health care team members and general stress with patients and family.
Nurses with their level of emotional intelligence can resolve the conflict while keeping up the therapeutic relationships. So, it is fully clear that AI systems would not replace nurses and clinicians on large scales, but rather would strengthen their efforts in patient care. Over the time, health care workers effectively utilize their time, towards tasks and job designs that draw on unique human skills which include emotional elements like empathy, touch, persuasions and communication.
Bringing the nurse leaders, nurse clinical specialists, nurse academicians and faculty, altogether is an intelligent way to keep pace with AI advancement while preserving the essence of nursing- the human element of this noble profession.
Given the potential of this technology for patient care and its impact on clinical providers, it is essential for nurses to have a basic understanding of AI concepts. Nurses at all levels and fields must update their knowledge adequately on AI technologies and involve to contribute in the developing stages of AI creation which directly involved in nursing functions. Providing opportunities for continuing education and research is mandatory to update knowledge, attitude and skill sets to incorporate AI in nursing teams.
Moving forward Nursing education with advanced new curriculum and nursing research will change to encompass a differentiated demand for professional nursing practice with robots in healthcare. Nursing educators in clinical as well as academic setups would be the leading faculty in teaching the new complex roles and responsibilities with the modern AI.
It is the time for the nurse leaders to be among the leaders and drivers of conversations around AI in health systems to preserve the true essence of Nursing profession.
Nurse’s eyes have seen pain, hands have touched hearts, heart has felt brokenness, feet have walked a thousand miles all for patients. The trained nurse has become a blessing to the humanity, taking a place besides the physician and the priest. Nurses can use AI to enrich the nursing practice by making sound clinical judgements. I would end up saying that artificial intelligence would need to be complementary to each other and can never take away the true essence of nursing profession.
