As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back

Associated Press ^ | 4:48 PM EDT, March 16, 2025 | Matthew Perrone

[Olog-hai]

The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have.

With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.

That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. […]

Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses’ expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive. …

[Herakles]

Is this the same AI kicking people out of needed care for those greedy sobs that run the healthcare system,?

[Getready]

Agree with nurses that AI should not replace nurses. But nurses demand so much through their unions ability to cripple, or even bankrupt a hospital that AI might catch on.Personally, my experience with computerized systems, WITH RUDIMENTARY AI was enraging. The systems would remind me of things I had already considered, but I had to document that I had dealt with the issue. Total waste of time. And I realized some unprofessional was gonna’ analyze the data and draw conclusions based on flawed info.

[mewzilla]

The last human nurse I encountered couldn’t tell the difference between a healthy scab and eschar.

Bring on AI.

[Adder]

I could deal with an ai assistant calling to confirm appointments and handle routine pre-visit questions or adding refills to prescriptions. That would free up a lot of time for nurses
But that’s as far as I would go.

[Besides, your bill certainly won’t change...]

[jmcenanly]

Wouldn’t it be best for an AI to assess the patient’s condition, then report it to the nurse who is best able to deal with it?

[trebb]

My daughter is a RN - and a good one. She isn’t part of any union and has called doctors on bad procedures in the OR which likely saved lives...

They can save the AI “nurses” for the machines where you put in a quarter and it pops out a card with your fortune on it.

However - I agree AI is great for researching through all the info on the Web at high speed, that’s where it stops - as a reference tool.

[redfreedom]

I’ve read AI generated articles. They are full of mistakes. I’ve used Google to find out when certain events take place and the events are discussed in the past tense, as though they have already taken place. When in fact the events are weeks off.

I do not want an AI nurse. It’s as stupid as having AI self drive a vehicle.

[Doctor Congo]

I do not want to converse with a machine.
Ever.

[Lowell1775]

The day is probably already here....but AI medical care willbe/is thought of like vaccines.

First, profit over all.....but,

They may well inoculate the majority against some threat real or perceived....however, thousands of others will perish with/by ham handed rote AI intervention who would have otherwise lived.

The good of the many outweigh the good of the few, or the one.

[Scrambler Bob]

It’s as stupid as having AI self drive a vehicle.
= = =

Or as AI emptying a bed pan.

[Myrddin]

I was in the hospital for months last year. The scariest thing to hear is that your nurse is a "traveling nurse". The "travelers" may be legitimate RNs, but they often are ignorant of how things work at their new assignment. They are roughly familiar with equipment in use e.g. IV pumps, but not at a level of expertise that should be required to interact with patients. The "travelers" don't have a network of trusted caregivers to back them up. They are ignorant of appropriate contacts it escalate resolution of a problem.