Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important part of healthcare. From clinical decision-support tools and electronic health records to data analysis and predictive technologies, AI has the potential to influence how nurses provide care, make decisions, and improve patient outcomes.

But as AI becomes more integrated into nursing practice, an important question must remain at the center of the conversation:

How can nurses use AI without losing the human connection that defines nursing?

The American Nurses Association (ANA) emphasizes that technology should support nursing care—not change the fundamental purpose of caring for patients.

Keeping Patients at the Center

Technology can make healthcare more efficient, but efficiency should never replace compassion, trust, communication, and caring.

The nurse-patient relationship is built on human interaction. Patients need to feel heard, respected, and understood. AI may assist nurses with gathering information, identifying patterns, or supporting clinical decisions, but it cannot replace the empathy and professional judgment nurses bring to patient care.

When implementing AI into practice, nurses should continually ask:

Does this technology improve the patient’s care and experience?

If a technology makes a process faster but negatively affects communication, trust, safety, or individualized care, its use should be carefully reconsidered.

Nurses Need to Understand How AI Affects Practice

AI is not simply a technology issue—it is becoming a nursing practice issue.

Nurses in different specialties and practice settings need to understand how AI may influence their workflows, clinical decisions, documentation, and patient outcomes. This does not mean that every nurse needs to become an AI expert or computer scientist. However, nurses should have enough knowledge to recognize the benefits and limitations of the technologies they use.

Critical thinking remains essential.

AI-generated information should not automatically be accepted as correct simply because it comes from a sophisticated system. Nurses must continue to use clinical knowledge, assessment skills, professional judgment, and patient preferences when making decisions.

AI and Health Disparities

One of the most important ethical concerns surrounding AI is the potential for technology to unintentionally reinforce existing health disparities.

AI systems often rely on large amounts of health data. However, large datasets do not necessarily represent every population equally. If certain groups are underrepresented in the data used to develop an AI system, the resulting technology may perform less effectively for those populations.

For nurses working in public health, research, informatics, and other data-driven areas, recognizing these limitations is particularly important.

Nurses should consider questions such as:

• Who is represented in the data?
• Who may be missing?
• Could this technology produce different outcomes for different populations?
• Could its use unintentionally contribute to existing health disparities?
• How might AI affect vulnerable or underserved communities?

These questions help nurses look beyond whether an AI tool works technically and consider whether it works fairly and safely for the people it is intended to serve.

AI Can Help—and It Can Harm

AI has tremendous potential to improve healthcare. It may help nurses identify risks, organize information, support clinical decision-making, improve efficiency, and analyze complex health data.

At the same time, technology can introduce new risks.

An AI system can produce inaccurate information, reflect limitations in its training data, or contribute to biased outcomes. Overreliance on technology can also create the risk that healthcare professionals become less engaged in their own critical thinking and clinical judgment.

For this reason, nurses should approach AI with both curiosity and caution.

The goal is not to reject technology. The goal is to use it responsibly.

What This Means for Nurses

As AI continues to evolve, nurses have an important role in shaping how these technologies are used in healthcare.

Ethical AI use means remembering that technology is a tool—not the caregiver.

Nurses should advocate for AI systems that promote patient safety, support equitable care, protect the nurse-patient relationship, and complement professional judgment. Nurses can also contribute valuable perspectives when healthcare organizations evaluate, implement, and monitor AI technologies.

Ultimately, the future of nursing and AI does not have to be a choice between technology and human-centered care.

The opportunity is to use technology to strengthen nursing care while keeping the patient—and the human connection—at the center.

Read the ANA Position Statement

For a deeper look at the ethical considerations surrounding artificial intelligence in nursing, read the American Nurses Association’s position statement:

The Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Practice

Read the full ANA Position Statement

Source: American Nurses Association, “The Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Practice,” Board of Directors approved December 20, 2022.