New York nurses leaders are blasting the city’s hospital system for quietly rolling out artificial intelligence tools they claim are threatening their jobs — and patient safety.
Hospital administrators and health care have already shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to launch language models with little input from those on the frontlines, nurses said at a recent meeting of the “State of Nursing” Committee on Hospitals.
“What do we do? What if the machines stop working? How do we go back to monitor that patient?” Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said at the Nov. 18 meeting.
“A lot of time, the hospitals want to come out with everything, with those AI, but we’re not part of the decision making,” added Hagans, who has worked at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn for over 30 years. “And we need to be part of the decision making, because it’s affecting how we care for our patients, and we are the one at the bedside delivering care all the time.”
The longtime nurse recounted a recent terrifying incident at Maimonides when staff arrived to find devices hooked to patients’ skulls in the ICU by a pharmaceutical company, without warning, training or protocols.
“What do we do? What if the machines stop working? How do we go back to monitor that patient?” Hagans questioned.
“A lot of time, the hospitals want to come out with everything, with those AI, but we’re not part of the decision making, and we need to be part of the decision making, because it’s affecting how we care for our patients, and we are the one at the bedside delivering care all the time.”
Denash Forbes, the NYSNA director at large and a nurse at Mount Sinai West for nearly four decades, criticized her employer and its significant investment of “untold millions” into healthcare AI technology, and attacked Mount Sinai’s latest innovation, which she claims is creating more work, and less oversight for its human counterparts.
“The hospital system proudly celebrates Sofiya, the latest AI assistant in Mount Sinai’s cardiac catheterization lab. Nurses have to check Sofiya’s work to make sure she hasn’t made a mistake,” Forbes said.
Robbie Freeman, Mount Sinai’s chief digital transformation officer, shared that the hospital hopes to “leverage AI as a supportive tool to enhance clinical decision-making—not to replace it.”
But local New York nurses and leaders don’t see it that way, and instead see it as a cost-saving measure that replaces nurses’ expertise with programmed prescriptions. “When hospitals try to cut corners like this to save patient care. Mistakes are made, biases are magnified, and more work is often created down the line,” Forbes said.
Hagans admitted that the threats from AI have forced industry leaders to lobby for safety from the growing technology in its latest contract negotiations.
“The AI should not be replacing our nurses. They should not be the one to care for our patients, because we need real nurses at real time at the bedside to care for our patients,” Hagans said.
Brooklyn councilwoman Mercedes Narcisse, who is also a registered nurse, doled out sharp criticism of the emerging tech, “All jokes aside, I don’t want no AI or robotic person to take care of me.”
New York City hospitals are the latest facilities that have seen significant inroads with AI in treatment, a trend that is impacting hospitals nationwide. According to a recent survey, one in three Americans are using AI to help manage their health, although some of ChatGPT’s bad medical advice has patients rushing to the ER.
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