The Future Is Here: Using AI in Nursing Is a Growing Trend

At Portneuf Regional Medical Center (PMC) in Pocatello, Idaho, nurses on the med-surg unit are receiving support through a new partnership that combines artificial intelligence (AI) with virtual nursing.

Amy Hemsley, RN

Amy Hemsley, MSN, RN, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at PMC, says the hospital has partnered with care.ai to implement a virtual nursing solution enabled by AI inferencing and in-room sensors. Inferencing is the clinical decision-making process that caregivers use to devise patient care plans.

PMC uses virtual nurses who work on the same unit in a separate room and use the care.ai platform to continuously monitor patients for potential risks. These nurses can alert bedside nurses to problems before they arise, allowing care teams to be more proactive and less reactive.

Hemsley says virtual nurses can also check on patients via video calls. If the patient consents, a camera will be activated and the virtual nurse will appear on the in-room television. Patients can choose to opt out of using this feature.

“As we work through the implementation and fine-tuning of the virtual nurse process, our bedside nurses are seeing they have additional availability to perform hands-on caregiving, spend more time with patients, and focus on enhancing the quality of care,” Hemsley said.

While artificial intelligence in nursing isn’t new, the technology has grown in popularity with more hospitals using AI tools to improve patient care and support nursing staff. However, AI has also raised concerns among nurses and other healthcare professionals that the technology might compromise patient safety and ultimately make some nursing jobs obsolete.

Hemsley says virtual nursing and PMC’s AI-enabled solutions help the nursing staff provide quality patient care, but they will not impact current staffing levels.

“Nursing is a complex role and will always include tasks that require nurses to be in-person at the bedside,” she said. “As with all technology we implement, we aim to enhance the nurses’ role at the bedside.”

According to Hemsley, the AI platform has been well-received since it was first introduced in July. The hospital plans to slowly roll out the platform to other units.

AI in nursing personalizes patient care

Jung In Park, BSN

At the University of California Irvine, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, Jung In Park, PhD, BSN, assistant professor, says the university is leading the way in incorporating informatics and AI in both nursing research and education.

“Our faculty are increasingly incorporating AI and machine learning, which finds patterns in data and uses them to make decisions, into their research efforts,” she said. “By harnessing large and complex data sets, we uncover valuable insights that can elevate the quality of nursing care and improve the interpretation of medical records, including nursing documentation.”

Park says the impact of AI on health care is both wide-ranging and promising, particularly in its potential to enhance patient care.

She explains that AI algorithms can analyze …read more

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