Will Nurses Be Replaced by AI?

It is important to know the projected demand of your profession before you spend four (or more) years getting a degree that traps you into a dying field. As I wrote about in my most recent blog post, the nursing profession will continue to grow in the coming years as the demand for healthcare increases. Technology has always been a crucial tool in the medical field, giving us CAT scans, prosthetic limbs, and artificial organs to name a few examples. During the pandemic, we relied on the accuracy of technology to diagnose patients using telehealth and engineer vaccines that would be safe to distribute to the public. With the increased use of artificial intelligence in many different professions, the question becomes...

Will Nurses Be Replaced by AI?

One of the main duties of a nurse is to care for the patient- not only in the physical and practical way but tending to the emotional side of the healing process.  Being a nurse requires empathy, which allows the patients to feel at ease. 

Artificial Intelligence cannot provide the emotional support, kind touch, or personal connection that human nurses share with their patients. 

 Another important responsibility of a nurse is conversing with patients to find out any information they may not have volunteered to the physician, explaining the treatment or medication the patient is receiving, and answering any questions or concerns the patient may have. In order to provide security and assurance, a nurse must be able to truly listen and understand human emotions. 

The nursing profession places too much emphasis on personality and compassion to be replaced by a robot. 

With that being said, technology can greatly assist nurses in their day-to-day tasks, allowing them to focus more on patient care. For example, RoboCourier is a piece of equipment used to reduce the number of trips nurses need to make carrying medications and surgical equipment. Other forms of technology can be used to move patients between units and take blood samples, helping the nurses complete the more physically demanding and time-consuming tasks.

The summation of the abilities of these machines is not even close to the capacity of a nurse today.