Expert Insights
The Vital Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Nursing
The Vital Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Nursing
In the modern era of this sophisticated world enormously blasts with complex technologies and high standards of equipment and various industrialized evolving of computerized machines, another information system had discovered. This new system is called Artificial Intelligence or shortly known as AI. Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence by machines, especially the computer system. It is also the ability of the machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. This includes learning, problem-solving, perception, and language understanding. AI systems manifests various functions to humankind. It can analyze data, recognize patterns, and make decisions based on that data, often mimicking human-like cognitive functions. According to one of the Technological writer, Sara Castellanos “Artificial intelligence encompasses the techniques, used to teach computers to learn, reason, perceive, infer, communicate and make decisions similar to or better than humans”. According to another writer Fei Fei Li “ Artificial Intelligence is not a substitute for human intelligence, it is a tool to amplify human creativity and ingenuity”. Nowadays, this new computer system still a mystery if what really are the impact to the healthcare especially in Nursing.
Artificial intelligence works by ingesting large amount of labelled training data, analyzing data for co-relations and patterns, and using these pattens to make predictions about future states. It describes AI that can emulate the human mind and has decision-making capabilities equal to that of a human, including recognizing and remembering emotions and reacting in social situations as a human would. There are multitude of benefits and advantages of Artificial Intelligence to the humankind. These includes reducing human errors, time saving capabilities, digital assistance, unbiased decisions, enhanced efficiency, task automation, and better innovation. However, the disadvantages include emotional intelligence, encouraging human laziness, skills loss, and job displacement. Although Artificial Intelligence is really beneficial to everyone especially in healthcare like improving decision making, help in treatment and care, and others, it also involves some risks that needs to be scrutinized.
The current challenge of Artificial Intelligence is to transform this expanded set of technology into clinical benefits for patients, through more advanced, accurate, practical, effective, efficient, and economical and personalized care. Along with the potential positive outcomes, AI technology also has unintended consequences that have the potential to negatively impact and adversely affect the nursing profession and the primary purpose of nursing practice in healthcare system. This aimed to explore and discuss the impact of applying AI in nursing science and healthcare system to provide approximate nursing care. Some of the impacts that can be evaluated and seen today in the context of using AI technology systems in the scope of nursing and healthcare are expanding access to quality medical care, improving medical records, and improving the quality of services. The use of AI technology systems also has some issues, such as bias and algorithms, which are drawbacks that need to be considered when evaluating the accuracy of the displayed results.
The scope of Artificial Intelligence in Nursing is favorable and benignant to nurses and other healthcare professionals. Artificial Intelligence helps in the robotic assisted surgeries of any surgical procedures, remote patient monitoring, patient care assistants by using chatbots and virtual assistance, medication management improvement, augment electronic health records, and other nursing simulators and applications enhancement. One successful surgical operation done with the use of Artificial Intelligence was performed by a leading vascular surgeon Dr. Allan Conway at the MarinHealth Medical Centre in California last September 2024. Conway is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to treat aneurysms, known as the silent killer. "It's exciting. It can analyze and help us identify exactly where the aneurysm is," Conway said. According to the Society for Vascular Surgery, every year, roughly 200,000 Americans are diagnosed with abdominal aortic aneurysms, which occur when a segment of the body's largest blood vessel becomes enlarged. Left untreated, it could lead to internal bleeding and death. Currently, AI technology has great potential to enhance nurses’ skills and enable them to provide evidence-based and personalized care to patients in a holistic, comprehensive, and integrated approach. Along with the potential positive outcomes, AI technology also has unintended consequences that have the potential to negatively impact and adversely affect the nursing profession and the primary purpose of nursing practice in the healthcare system.
AI's impact is multifaceted, offering both significant benefits and potential risks. While AI can automate tasks, enhance efficiency, and improve decision-making, it also raises concerns about job displacement, algorithmic bias, and privacy violations. The overall impact of AI depends on how it's developed, implemented, and regulated. In the nursing setting, the advancement of AI technology is being greeted with excitement as a promising nursing innovation such as intelligence agents, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, robotic process automation, administrative applications, and explainable or interpretable AI. However, one of the potential implications of replacing aspects of human expertise with autonomous AI system technology is the legal implications of clinical accountability. In this sense, accountability is a process in which health professionals have the potential responsibility to justify clinical actions to patients and take responsibility for the consequences. In the use of AI technology, accountability is still being questioned and debated, whether the results of AI are absolute or just a consideration.
Artificial Intelligence presents a powerful tool with the potential to transform various aspects of our lives. However, it's crucial to address the potential risks and ensure that AI is developed and deployed responsibly. This includes mitigating bias, protecting privacy, promoting transparency, and ensuring that AI benefits all of society while minimizing negative consequences. Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize nursing practice, improving efficiency, enhancing patient care, and transforming the role of the nurse. However, it is crucial to address the ethical considerations and ensure that AI is used responsibly and effectively to benefit both nurses and patients. It is still depends on us as a human being nurses how we use an AI in moderation and proper way as well as being independent with our own skills and talents in nursing rather than be dependent with the sophisticated machines. At the end, things in this world are imperfectly created by God. It is just for us how we manage and value things tremendously in life. As a denouement, Artificial Intelligence will not replace nurses, but in the future, the nurses with training in AI will replace the nurses without training in AI”.
Neri Torrato Camina Jr, BSN, RN
Florida
