America’s largest nurses union demands halt to ‘unproven’ healthcare AI
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — National Nurses United (NNU), the largest nurses union in the United States, is calling for a halt to the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in healthcare until they are proven safe and equitable.
The union, representing 225,000 nurses nationwide, argued that most current AI applications do not meet these standards and should be discontinued immediately.
Lack of evidence on AI safety claims
Michelle Mahon, Assistant Director of Nursing Practice at NNU, emphasized the lack of evidence supporting the safety claims of AI tools.
“These arguments that these AI tools will result in improved safety are not grounded in any type of evidence whatsoever,” Mahon told Fierce Healthcare.
NNU’s concerns are rooted in the integration of AI into electronic health records (EHRs), which are often used to predict sepsis or determine patient acuity.
According to Mahon, EHRs already contribute to an estimated 30,000 deaths per year, making them the third leading cause of death in the nation. Adding “unproven” algorithms to these systems is not a prudent use of healthcare resources, the union argues.
Demanding adherence to precautionary principle
The union demands that all AI tools in healthcare adhere to the precautionary principle, which requires the highest level of protection for innovations lacking significant scientific backing.
NNU claims that most AI tools currently in use do not meet this principle and should be discontinued.
Impact on nursing practice
NNU also stated that the current implementation of AI is deskilling nurses and pushing them out of patient rooms.
“(AI) drills down patient care to ‘tasking’… Nursing labor is viewed just as a series of tasks to perform as opposed to the cognitive, emotional, physical, and highly skilled labor that we actually perform,” Mahon said.
A recent NNU survey revealed that 69% of nurses whose employers use patient acuity algorithms found that their assessments differed from the AI-generated assessments.
Additionally, 40% of nurses in hospitals using algorithms to determine patient outcomes reported they could not override the algorithm’s predictions when their assessments differed.
AI Bill of Rights and regulatory efforts
In response to these concerns, NNU released an AI Bill of Rights, advocating for high-quality person-to-person care, privacy, transparency, and regulatory oversight. The union demands premarket testing and approval of all AI tools for healthcare and ongoing monitoring by a regulatory agency.
NNU is actively engaging with regulators, lawmakers, and hospital administrations to voice their concerns.
“Untested, unproven technologies that do not meet the precautionary principle need to be discontinued immediately,” Mahon stated.
The union insists on the right to collective advocacy on AI, allowing local nurse unions to bargain over the implementation of technology in their workplaces.
