AI in Hospital Nursing: New Survey Reveals Growing Concerns Among Nurses

Nurses Report Increased Workplace Monitoring

One of the most notable findings involved concerns about monitoring and behavioral tracking.

Sixty-five percent of surveyed nurses said they felt individually monitored or behaviorally tracked by at least one AI-related system.

AI technologies are increasingly being incorporated into hospital operations for purposes such as workflow management, staffing, documentation, performance monitoring and clinical decision support. While these systems can provide hospitals with additional data, nurses may experience them differently when technology is used to evaluate individual activity or performance.

On acute inpatient floors and critical care units, bedside staff and contracted Registered Nurses (RN) / Travel Nursing frequently navigate the pressure of automated dwell-time metrics, algorithmic task reassignment, and sensor-based room telemetry that scrutinize bedside presence.

The survey findings suggest that transparency will be important as hospitals expand these systems. Nurses may need clear information about what data are collected, how the information is analyzed and how AI-generated assessments are used in employment or clinical decisions.

AI May Add Work Instead of Reducing It

Another major concern identified by the survey was workload.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said AI had added new tasks without eliminating existing work.

Healthcare organizations frequently promote AI as a way to reduce administrative responsibilities and give clinicians more time for patient care. However, introducing new technology can also create additional responsibilities, including reviewing AI-generated information, correcting errors, learning new software, responding to alerts and documenting information in new systems.

For nurses, the practical impact may therefore depend not only on whether a hospital adopts AI, but also on how the technology is integrated into existing workflows.

If AI systems create additional steps without removing older processes, nurses may experience technology as another source of workload rather than as a tool for reducing administrative burden.

Concerns About Career Choices

The survey also points to concerns about how continued AI adoption could affect nurses' career decisions.

Nearly half of respondents indicated that they may consider moving into roles with less exposure to AI.

Such responses highlight an important workforce issue for hospitals. Nursing shortages and retention challenges have made recruitment and long-term workforce stability major priorities for healthcare organizations.

Burnout driven by intrusive bedside telemetry and algorithmic pacing has prompted many experienced nurses to explore alternate clinical models, including Telehealth / Remote / Virtual Jobs, where virtual nursing triage, patient education, and tele-monitoring offer greater scheduling autonomy and relief from physical tracking pressures.

If nurses perceive AI primarily as a monitoring mechanism or as a source of additional work, hospitals could face resistance to implementation and potentially greater difficulty retaining some employees.

At the same time, the findings do not mean that nurses oppose AI technology itself. Rather, they point to concerns about how AI is deployed, governed and incorporated into everyday nursing practice.

Patient Safety and Communication

The survey also raises questions about workplace communication and patient safety.

Some nurses reported becoming less willing to flag near misses or situations in which they were uncertain. In a hospital environment, the ability of nurses and other clinicians to openly report potential problems is an important component of patient-safety programs.

Near-miss reporting can help healthcare organizations identify weaknesses before an error reaches a patient. If employees become reluctant to report concerns because they fear monitoring, evaluation or other consequences, hospitals could lose valuable information about emerging risks.

This makes the human side of AI implementation particularly important. Technology designed to improve efficiency should not unintentionally undermine communication between nurses, attending Physicians / MD-DO, administrators and other members of the care team.

The Importance of Nurse Involvement

The survey suggests that nurses should have a direct role in decisions about AI implementation.

Nurses are among the healthcare professionals who interact with hospital technology throughout the day, making their practical experience particularly relevant when hospitals evaluate new systems.

Advanced practice leaders and clinical Nurse Practitioners (NP) are increasingly advocating for formal clinician co-design committees, ensuring that automated decision-support algorithms reflect actual clinical judgment rather than ungrounded administrative assumptions.

Involving nurses during the selection, testing and implementation of AI tools could help organizations identify workflow problems before technologies are deployed more broadly. It could also provide hospitals with feedback about whether a particular system actually saves time, improves documentation or creates additional work.

Clear policies around data collection and employee monitoring may also become increasingly important as AI systems become more sophisticated.

Balancing Innovation and Clinical Practice

AI is expected to continue expanding across U.S. healthcare, including areas such as clinical documentation, scheduling, patient monitoring, decision support, staffing and administrative operations.

The Black Book Research findings illustrate that technological adoption alone does not determine whether an AI initiative will be successful. Hospitals also need to consider how these systems affect the people expected to use them.

For nursing professionals, the central question may be whether AI becomes a tool that removes unnecessary administrative work and supports clinical care, or another layer of technology that requires additional oversight and responsibilities.

As hospitals continue investing in artificial intelligence, the survey highlights the importance of transparency, nurse participation, appropriate workload redesign and strong patient-safety reporting cultures.

The findings provide an early look at the workforce challenges that healthcare organizations may need to address as AI becomes a more routine part of hospital nursing.