Artificial Intelligence in the Nursing Industry

 With the rapid improvement of AI today, many questions emerge: why is AI being incorporated into the healthcare system? Why should we consider it a safe route for treating patients? How will AI benefit nurses in a hospital setting and how is AI being used in nursing education? And of course, what makes many fear AI pursuing its career in the healthcare industry? (Though, no matter how advanced and skilled these computers are, it is less likely that they will replace human nurses entirely.)

 Currently in Canada, there has been a crisis in the nursing labor market: a shortage of nurses across the country. According to PMC, an estimated 13 million nurses are needed over the next 10 years. However, it is believed that by 2030, there will be an estimated shortage of more than 100,000 nurses nationwide. Dr. Leigh Chapman, Canada’s Chief Nursing Officer states that “nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system, yet too many in Canada are struggling with their mental health, experiencing burnout, distress, feeling overworked, and unappreciated, [causing] them to leave their jobs” (canada.ca). Due to this, the implementation of artificial intelligence is being considered to be interpreted into healthcare as technology evolves and becomes more mainstream in society.

There may be many clinical benefits to patients from adapting to AI. Artificial intelligence allows healthcare providers to better understand their patients in regards to their health and treatment plans. AI in the healthcare industry has helped several medical professionals with their line of work. It also has some pros in regarding making patient care much more lighter on healthcare providers, such as telemedicine and remote monitoring, diagnosis and disease detection, drug discovery and development, treatment planning/personalization, predictive analytics, and the increase of administrative efficiency. With these improvements in place, nurses in this field have less worry about the amount of patients they have to handle and monitor.

Dr. Eric Topol, known for his three best selling books regarding AI in the healthcare system believes that “the greatest opportunity offered by AI is not reducing errors or workloads, or even curing cancer; it is the opportunity to restore precious time-honoured connection and trust- the human touch- between patients and doctors.” Generally speaking, AI allows humans to feel less distress in the field of nursing. A known benefit is the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS): an AI-powered tool that issues nurses with evidenced-based recommendations and alerts, assisting them in identifying potential health issues early in their patients' case, and making accurate clinical decisions. An example of this is CDSS' ability to analyze patients’ data. This data includes the patients’ previous diagnoses, medical history, lab results, age, weight, and drug interactions. 

In spite of having plenty of benefits that AI provides, there are some disadvantages that come along with it. A major issue that comes along with artificial intelligence is the sensitive data that is processed through its system. There is a lack of privacy and security that is issued in this matter. Healthcare systems are required to process this data through its system. This information includes diagnoses, reports, clinical images, and the patients genetic information. If there is an instance where a leakage or an occasion where this information is misused, this could result in serious consequences in regards to the individual’s privacy. However, a fundamental challenge AI struggles with is its lack of transparency within its decision making. This is an important aspect to keep in mind, as it affects the outcome of people’s lives. This is also referred to as the “black-box” problem. This does not ensure that artificial intelligence will have the best outcome throughout its decision making– medical AI systems may make unintelligible mistakes that are difficult to detect. This would result in a possible act of harm towards a patient. Even worse, if a misdiagnosis occurs, such as providing the incorrect medication towards a patient, it may possibly cause serious harm towards the patient. Nonetheless, something AI currently lacks is human empathy. Although AI has the ability to stimulate mental states, to some extent, it cannot relate to the feelings of humans. Clinical Empathy Expert and Berkeley Public Health Bioethics MD, PhD, Professor Jodi Halpern said that “artificial intelligence (AI) cannot replace human empathy in the healthcare setting and that empathy is key to the successful treatment of patients” (publichealth.berkeley.edu). Clinical empathy revolves around the adaptation to another person’s emotional meanings and attempting to understand the situation in their perspective. Thus, attitude plays a grand part: it provides genuine curiosity to be provided more input from one’s perspective. In a clinical setting, if one is provided with negative news, they are there to provide sympathy and support towards the patient. AI lacks this humane feature, since responses are based on their algorithms and patterns within its data system. For the most part, AI still has a long way to go, but understanding that the majority of society revolves around its use of technology, it is for sure to advance more to make better and safer use within the industry.