How AI is Changing Nursing in 2024

Artificial Intelligence technologies become more robust every day. We see this in every sector, including healthcare, and specifically nursing. Implementing AI can revolutionize workflows and transform the way nurses deliver care. Read on to learn more about how AI is changing nursing in 2024 and how you can capitalize on these technological advancements in your healthcare systems.

Integration of Multiple Data Sources

AI within the healthcare setting allows nursing staff to better understand their patients. AI technology can analyze more data points than traditional tools, providing a complete picture of the patient. With medical knowledge soon doubling every 73 days, having access to multiple data sources is a necessity for nurses.

The tech provides instant access to information that can help determine the best course to treat a patient. Some of the information that can be accessed includes patient-reported outcomes, preferences, and any additional concerns or considerations.

Integrating multiple data sources empowers nurses to find all the necessary information within seconds so they can make informed decisions regarding patient care.

More Accurate and Effective Risk Assessment

Nurses regularly conduct manual risk calculations on patients under their care. While necessary, it’s a time-consuming process vulnerable to human error. AI capabilities provide more accurate, effective risk assessments that reduce resource spending.

AI provides many advantages to traditional manual risk calculations, including

• The ability to quickly evaluate a sizable volume of data
• Higher intervention specificity, including accurately identifying patients at the highest risk
• Automated adjustments in variable selection and risk calculations

These applications consider not only present fall risk but evaluate the likelihood of risk over time, changing calculations to increase assessment accuracy. Traditional assessments work with available data, but AI assessments account for individual variations that might increase risk over time.

AI considers and evaluates more diverse patient information from their health records and other information sources to determine the most accurate risk assessment possible.

Impact on Nursing Education

Nurses are invaluable members of hospital teams and other healthcare settings, but a nurse's formation begins in the classroom. As AI continues to evolve, we see the technology affecting three main areas of nursing education: the educators, the students, and the application in clinical practices. We explore these below.

1. Influences of AI on Nursing Educators

The primary use of AI in the classroom is through nursing labs. It can be anticipated that a higher volume of humanoid robots to mirror human-like, real-time simulations will be used more often. This gives nursing educators more options when teaching their students and allows them to simulate a real-life situation, thus preparing new nurses for more when they initially enter the field.

Other AI technologies include face-tracking software, which uses machine learning to analyze student emotions during lab simulations. These more realistic simulations and a deeper, data-driven understanding of student reactions allow nursing educators to tailor classroom simulations to better meet student needs.

2. Influences of AI on Nursing Students

The role of nurses has shifted significantly over the last 10 years with the introduction and implementation of AI. While nurses continue to perform many of the same patient care tasks they long have, today, they have new responsibilities that include data literacy and data-based decision-making.

Nursing students need core competency education that prepares them for their future in a healthcare setting enveloped in AI technologies. With the widespread adoption of AI in nursing and the use of AI medical carts, students require proper education to understand and work with advancements in AI topics like informatics, ethics, privacy, research, and more.

Additionally, the use of AI to simulate scenarios, reactions, and other situations students may experience in the field prepares them in a way education could not before.

Mobile Health, AI Medical Carts, and Sensor-Based Devices

The pandemic reshaped how we think about and deliver remote healthcare. AI technologies deliver advancements to remote and mobile healthcare, allowing nurses to provide care and monitor their patients more effectively even from remote settings.

As we enter 2024, the nationwide nursing shortage continues to create problems for healthcare staff and patients. Nurses are required to do more than ever with dwindling resources and the constant threat of burnout. AI technology can help.

AI applications implemented in mobile and sensor-based technologies allow nurses to monitor patients remotely, eliminating the need for in-person encounters every time a patient’s data needs to be measured. For example, nurses can use a sensor-based AI medical cart to measure a patient’s body movement, heart rate, and weight from their home.

These tools allow nurses to analyze patients and identify additional care needs or support required without the time commitment –– from either party –– of an in-person visit or hospital stay.

Automated Nursing Workflows in Hospital Settings

AI transforms how nurses deliver care. AI tech can automate hospital operations, returning time and energy to the nursing staff so they can devote their resources to patient care.

Patient intake and discharge, staff scheduling, financial collections, and other administrative tasks can be executed accurately and efficiently through AI applications. Instead of spending time on repetitive tasks like these, nurses can take advantage of AI to streamline their workflows and focus on the patient.

Ensuring AI Success in Nursing

AI in nursing isn’t black and white. The human element of healthcare means AI applications, uses, and implementation will vary across healthcare systems and the communities they serve. AI success requires thoroughly evaluating the most helpful and appropriate tools, engagement with nurses, and nurse involvement in its implementation.

AI in nursing and healthcare is only effective if the nurses are properly trained on how to use the new technology. Nurses play a critical role in advancing AI and the way it delivers optimal patient-focused care. Connect with Altus today to learn how our solutions are supporting these advancements.