How generative AI can help address the critical nurse shortage
As the nurse shortage continues to deplete hospitals and healthcare systems, some IT leaders have begun working with generative AI to see if it can help reduce administrative burdens on nurses, free them up to spend more time with patients, and to help alleviate the nursing shortage.
Jill M. Lashay is a healthcare attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, specializing in labor and employment law management. Carly Barnes is an associate at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. They both help clients deal with challenges in healthcare, technology and nursing on a daily basis.
Healthcare IT news sat down with them both to discuss what the nurse shortage means for hospitals and healthcare systems, how technologies like ChatGPT can help address labor shortages and the increasing demands on healthcare workers, and predictions for the future of AI and the shortage nurses.
Q. Please describe the nature of the current nursing shortage.
Lashay: The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unpredictable spike in patient demand. As a result, nurses became overwhelmed and resources were more limited. When COVID-19 was declared a national public health emergency, nurses were initially praised by the public and media for their response and commitment to patient care. However, over time, well-being deteriorated and nurses felt unsupported.
The current nurse shortage situation in the United States is more challenging than ever. Those nurses who were nearing retirement age before the pandemic chose to leave the profession in one of the largest numbers in history in 2020 and 2021.
Even nurses who are not yet close to retirement age often choose to work in a hospital and then transition to an outpatient setting. More and more hospital nurses say they are dissatisfied in their current position, and many want to leave their current position in 2024.
They are considering other options, including working as a travel nurse, taking jobs outside of direct patient care, returning to school or even leaving the profession.
Barnes: While the working population is shrinking, the population is getting older. As a result, the demand for healthcare will continue. Those nurses who remain in the profession face higher patient loads, less time with patients and longer hours.
This results in patient safety and access to healthcare issues. The financial stability of the health care system also depends on sufficient staff.
Some hospitals are offering large signing bonuses to recruit nurses and in turn ease the shortage. Yet overall, it is becoming increasingly important that nurses continue to receive mental and emotional support, meaningful opportunities to feel less constrained in practice, and adequate technological support.
Individual intervention can lead to systematic improvement and stability.
Q. How can hospitals and healthcare systems use generative AI and other technological advancements to alleviate these shortages?
Lashay: The healthcare industry is ripe for a once-in-a-century revolution with the introduction of AI. Patients will soon see the value of AI in life-saving medical devices, as well as in the delivery of standard medical care. This tectonic shift will have a direct impact on the way nurses and other healthcare professionals perform their work.
Hospitals and healthcare systems are likely to be the first to adopt AI in areas such as nurse training and onboarding. This use of AI could mitigate the impact of shortages by freeing up current nurse educators and educators to focus on actual patient care and revenue-generating tasks.
“Great language model technology, such as ChatGPT, can help nurses manage electronic health records and other data that can be time-consuming or distracting for the nurse.”
Jill M. Lashay, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
Furthermore, patient care combined with enormous documentation requirements can lead to nurse burnout. AI can be used to assist nurses with clinical documentation and administrative tasks, making their work experience less stressful and more focused on their chosen profession: patient care. This can result in higher recruitment and retention of nurses.
Barnes: AI cannot be used to replace a nurse’s clinical experience, emotional support, or medical judgment, but it can be used to send patients medication reminders, assist with scheduling and billing, and help answer medical questions. Other technological advances can also be used to help with drug dispensing and shelf stocking.
AI can be implemented to more directly help with staffing shortages. For example, companies have developed healthcare apps that allow facility managers to communicate staffing needs. The registered nurses post their availability. When staffing needs arise, local nurses receive a notification and can accept or decline a shift.
Once accepted, the facility schedule will be updated to reflect the filled position. This not only helps meet the needs of the facility, but also gives nurses more flexibility and control over their schedules, which in turn reduces burnout.
Q. How can technology like ChatGPT help address labor shortages and increasing demands on healthcare workers?
Barnes: First, by using ChatGPT, providers can access information on a variety of topics. Healthcare professionals can access medical literature and treatment guidelines in real time to assist with diagnoses and treatment recommendations, ultimately resulting in more informed decision-making and better patient outcomes.
ChatGPT can also be used to recommend labs and tests and to help providers verify their knowledge of drug interactions when prescribing. Healthcare professionals can also dictate their notes and use ChatGPT to accurately summarize signs, symptoms and diagnoses. Valuable time is then given back to the staff to pay more attention to patient care.
Lashay: Additionally, major language model technology, such as ChatGPT, can help nurses manage electronic health records and other data that can be time-consuming or distracting for the nurse who simply wants to focus on patient care. It can alleviate some record-keeping responsibilities, reducing the need for more nursing staff.
Data extraction requires a lot of time and attention. Healthcare workers can rely on AI to extract clinical data from EHRs and other systems. AI technology can retrieve and centralize information from multiple systems.
The technology can not only find standardized or structured information, such as name or date of birth, but can also help retrieve ‘unstructured’ information from doctors’ notes or other reports. While the information is centralized, it can also be linked back to the original source, so a healthcare provider can read and interpret the information in its original context to discuss the outcome and more confidently recommend next steps with the patient.
Q: What are some predictions you have for the nurse and AI shortage by 2024?
LashayThe nurse shortage is not expected to decrease until 2024. Nursing school enrollment in 2023 is down from previous years and many new nurses are more transient than their older counterparts.
Younger nurses recognize the travel opportunities and financial benefits of temporary work, as well as the recruitment bonuses offered by hospitals and health care systems. This makes recruitment and retention a challenge.
While AI may be more attractive to younger nurses, those over 50 may shy away from the technology and retire. AI is also expensive, and the current financial challenges facing hospitals and healthcare systems may pose barriers to purchasing and implementing AI products to help solve the nurse shortage.
Barnes: To help combat shortages, healthcare systems may consider developing virtual nursing teams. Although virtual programs require upfront costs for recruitment and technology, once trained, nurses can work from an on-site command center or even work from home to handle patient admissions, discharges and transfers, review medical histories and assess current symptoms.
Although virtual nurses do not provide bedside care, they can play a critical role in the continuum of care by directly monitoring and educating the patient and corresponding with the in-person clinical team and family members to provide necessary updates. Virtual nurses also provide an extra layer of safety monitoring.
Ultimately, the healthcare industry must continue to embrace innovation. It is up to industry leaders to adopt technology that will help reduce nurse burnout. This, in turn, can lead to greater career satisfaction and help attract and retain talent.
Additionally, providers may consider engaging in dialogue with their international counterparts on methods that could potentially help address the shortage here. Finally, exploring partnerships with academic institutions can help the profession grow so that we do not see the shortage problem persisting at such high levels into 2025 and beyond.
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