Empathetic AI Nurses Can Vastly Improve Nurses’ Work and Patient Care

AI nurses are no longer a futuristic concept. They’re being tested out and deployed in medical care settings around the world. “Some hospitals have already introduced AI nurse robots, companion robots, and drug dispensing robots to assist nurses,” a new study reports. Artificial intelligence is “being distributed as an alternative that can reduce the rate of misdiagnosis by medical personnel.”

One of the earliest signs of success involves patient intake, with AI not only handling but improving on these processes. “Triage time in particular, defined as the time between ED (emergency department) check-in and triage code assignment, is frequently prolonged during peak hours, when patient volume increases dramatically and triage nurses may inadvertently overlook the most urgent cases; AI-powered solutions have been shown to be beneficial,” a group of medical professionals reports in Frontiers in Digital Health.

Similar positive results are being found elsewhere. An analysis published by Intensive and Critical Care Nursing sifted through 26 different studies to examine the role of AI in emergency department triage. Machine learning-based models “consistently outperformed traditional tools,” often achieving AUC (Area Under the Curve) levels greater than 0.80 “for high acuity outcomes,” it found. Levels that high are generally considered “clinically useful.”

The potential benefits are transformational. With AI nurses handling these kinds of tasks, human nurses can spend more time doing what they want to do most: deliver care directly to patients.

In my work with health and medical organizations, I often hear from people concerned that this phenomenon will make care too impersonal. I have two responses to this. First, it doesn’t have to be any less personal. And second, it’s good that they’re concerned about this. Because the AI nurses that work well, helping both patients and nurses, are built with this in mind.

Dispelling AI empathy myths

In the early days of AI, which was just a few years ago, there was a common belief that this technology would never be able to achieve the kind of empathy that people seek in all sorts of environments, particularly healthcare. But the field has evolved quickly.

“A sweeping meta-analysis of 15 studies found patients consistently rate AI chatbots as warmer and more empathic than real clinicians,” earth.com reports. These tools “edged out doctors and nurses by roughly two points on 10-point empathy scales. Overall, artificial intelligence had a 73% chance of being judged more empathic in head-to-head comparisons.”

This is understandable. Given the extreme hours and overwhelming stress so many healthcare providers face, it can be very difficult for them to present and maintain the kind of demeanor that AI can. And, unlike humans, this technology can multi-task exponentially, giving people a simultaneous sense that the AI nurse is fully focused on them.

There are myriad clinical benefits. When patients feel greater empathy, they’re more likely to disclose relevant information, including stigmatized health conditions. They’re also less likely to say they have experienced medical errors.

But not all AI tools are made equal. As health and medical organizations explore the growing number of offerings available, they need to seek out solutions built the right way.

Hyper-personalization breeds empathy

Delivering an empathetic experience isn’t just about mannerisms; it’s about knowledge. A successful AI nurse will have access to a patient’s history, concerns, preferences, allergies and more. It will know the kind of language and prompts a patient responds best to. It may even know the kind of voice the patient likes to interact with.

To do all this, it should operate on a unified customer experience management platform. A UCXM pulls together every piece of information about each patient into a single, intelligible record, with key insights available at a glance. It synthesizes information collected through messaging, phone calls, and other platforms, along with clinicians’ notes, EHRs (electronic health records) and more.

These platforms must also be built with privacy, protecting confidential data and ensuring HIPAA compliance.

Humans in the loop

The best tools will also alert healthcare providers when they should step in. A patient’s response or description may be more complex than the AI is trained to handle. A patient might show signs of frustration, or even distress. Or there may be risk factors that require immediate medical action. 

AI nursing systems should keep healthcare providers in the loop. They must have access to all the same information about the patient, so they can instantly spot what’s going wrong in the intake process, and how to fix it.

Nurses are as needed as ever. Nothing about the AI revolution means erasing the value of us humans. When used correctly, AI can be a win-win — making patients’ outcomes and the work lives of healthcare professionals better than ever.

Photo: asiseei, Getty Images

Tomas Gorny is co-founder and CEO of Nextiva, a unified customer experience management platform empowering employees, partners, and customers with the best tools to help their businesses grow fearlessly. An award-winning entrepreneur, he is committed to helping set up businesses for success with powerful and intuitive technologies. He and his team work with businesses across numerous industries, including healthcare. Nextiva’s latest report is The Leader’s Guide to CX Trends. Tomas is also a philanthropist, carrying out a range of projects through both Nextiva Cares and the Gorny Foundation.

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