Nurses as Barriers to AI in Healthcare: A Misconception
Are nurses really a barrier to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare? Do we truly want to create a world where the potential benefits of AI are overlooked due to existing systemic silos and biases?
My mentor, Paul Farmer, always emphasized the power of partnership and accompaniment in global health and navigating the political challenges within large organizations.
Nurses naturally possess many ideas and firsthand experience, recognizing obstacles that cause suffering in our current systems. Why not empower them with the language and capabilities to transform their ideas into action?
I witnessed the power of accompanying nurses and building capacity around innovation firsthand over a decade ago at Boston Children’s Hospital. I worked alongside leaders such as the Chief Nursing Officer Laura J. Wood DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN and the Chief Innovation Officer, John Brownstein and Naomi Fried, Ph.D. to support nurse innovators. We contemplated how to integrate nursing and support them systematically in the innovation ecosystem that Boston Children’s was developing.
I had the privilege of collaborating with several nurses on a significant challenge — changing critical medication lines in the ICU, which often led to patient instability, especially in pediatrics. We worked with Draper Labs, to develop a new device that allows medication to continue to flow to the patient even when lines are changed, preventing disruptions.
Unfortunately, this approach of breaking down silos is uncommon in the current US healthcare system. With hospitals struggling with tight margins and high turnover rates, this is a major overlooked opportunity to stabilize and redirect the current degrading culture. Whether your hospital is undergoing a transformation process involving the incorporation go robotic process automation, ambient scribes or implementing a new EHR, having deep empathy and an open ear the the clinical front lines is not enough. We need to involve, engage and build capacity of frontline members when in it comes to technology and AI. We need to give them the language and opportunities to be involved in the software development lifecycle. This task, however, cannot be solely the responsibility of hospitals and health systems leaders — industry must also change.
When I founded Reveal HealthTech, one of our first programs focused on engaging frontline staff, from nurses to practice managers, in the software development lifecycle and systematically incorporating them into our work with clients. We had to find a way to do this without disturbing the current workforce shortages, and at the same time to remove the financial burdens from the hospitals themselves. This vision and understanding emerged from my extensive healthcare experience and seeing first hand the challenges that leadership and management face. For example, I know many nurses not only work at hospitals but also pick up extra shifts at local facilities. Frontline managers and patient coordinators often work night shifts as bartenders or waitresses. This doesn’t make sense. Why not channel their talents into transformation projects at their current institutions instead? So we did.
Integrating nurses into tech development is the key to unlocking AI’s potential.
I believe it is the responsibility of all stakeholders to lean in. Whether at a rural hospital or a large health system, we offer our customers the opportunity to select nurses and frontline staff to be trained and integrated into the projects we are hired to execute, and they are paid by by us. This provides them with the extra revenue they are seeking, but more importantly, an opportunity to become change agents at their institutions, incorporating their insights and ideas into the technologies that they will eventually use. They gain a vision of what is possible with technology when we work together and AI starts to become demystified. This fundamentally changes the culture at these institutions through unification of vision, thought and action.
Accompaniment unlocks the drive for learning and capacity building.
Change is happening — this year, for the first time our industries largest healthcare conference focusing on innovation, HLTH is leaning in with a program committed to elevating the voices of nurses and nurse leaders, recognizing them as the backbone of healthcare and that their absence is a key barrier to our progress. At the same time, they are elevating the discourse around AI and are on a mission to demystify the use of AI in healthcare.
Every time I see an article, even a title depicting nurses as rising against something in the healthcare system, my heart saddens. Nurses are not here to create more friction. Let’s change the narrative, elevate their voices, and systematically incorporate them into all aspects of innovation and care.
Dr. Salim Afshar
Chief Medical and Innovation Officer
Reveal HealthTech
