Nurse AI adoption lags behind doctors: survey
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Nurses are using AI less frequently than physicians, and many feel like they're being excluded from decision-making, according to survey data from scientific publisher Elsevier shown first to Axios.
Why it matters: Nurses are often where the rubber meets the road in health care. Without their buy-in and input, hospitals could spend on medical tools that don't actually help staff or patients.
State of play: Just 41% of nurses reported using AI tools frequently in a survey of almost 700 conducted last winter, compared with 57% of physicians.
- The same share of nurses said their views are not reflected enough in organizational decisions. About half said they think their employer is good at AI governance and providing access to AI tools.
- Elsevier surveyed 692 nurses and 2,065 doctors around the world.
Zoom in: Nurses are split on AI, with about half of those surveyed saying the technology empowers them and 53% saying AI currently improves patient care.
- 55% of nurses said they believe AI will save them time within the next two to three years — significantly less than the 70% of doctors who expect it will.
Between the lines: The use of AI in hospitals has become a friction point in some labor-management disputes over the past year. New York City nurses negotiated safeguards against AI in their contracts following a historic strike in February.
- A group convened by the American Nurses Association last month to discuss AI raised concerns that overreliance on the technology could erode clinical judgement. They stressed the need for ongoing AI training for nurses and to maintain human oversight.
What they're saying: "AI has the potential to make a real difference in how we deliver care, but there is a clear lack of AI tools designed specifically with nurses in mind," Amy Hall, dean of the nursing school at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, said in a statement about the findings.
- "Nurses need a stronger voice in which tools are adopted to support patients and how they are implemented," said Hall, who reviewed the report but wasn't involved in its creation.
