Overview
AI’s role in health care is poised to expand exponentially in the coming years. AI is becoming more advanced, accurate, practical, effective, efficient, and economical for nursing care providing the nursing profession with opportunities while also adding pressure to apply AI technology in patient care.
The key issues for the nursing profession surrounding AI emphasise the delicate balance between the transformative potential of AI to improve patient care and the critical imperatives of data privacy, ethics, managing data bias and equitable access, all of which must be thoughtfully addressed to ensure that AI truly advances health care for everyone.
The use of AI in health care is now critical to the knowledge base and skill set of the 21st-century nurse, and as such, ACN supports its development as a core curriculum component of undergraduate nursing education. ACN recognises the need to identify the evolving specialised digital and informatics nursing roles that are critical in the development, governance, use, and assurance of patient safety within the current healthcare system.
As a human-centred profession, nursing must match the pace of development and implementation of AI while fully understanding the benefits, limitations, and risks of its use.
Key recommendations
ACN recommends:
- That nurses who specialise in informatics be included in the bodies managing AI in health care within the healthcare system.
- The nursing profession must be committed to staying abreast of healthcare advancements, particularly in AI.
- Nursing informaticians must be integral to all aspects of AI application, adhering to Australian standards and management protocols.
- Nurses must play a central role in the design, implementation, and evaluation of AI applications, ensuring that ethical and practical considerations align with nursing requirements.
- Nursing should have a participatory role in the development of data governance models based on principles of integrity, transparency, auditability, accountability, stewardship, checks and balances, standardisation, and change management
ACN advocates for AI to be developed within a robust safety framework, for the implementation of accreditation to assess AI safety and quality practice standards and the integration of the national AI ethical framework to support value-based health care.
