Ethical Considerations and Challenges in The Integration of AI in Nursing Practice: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Advancements in the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to the nursing profession and more specifically to the critical care units (CCUs) present a considerable opportunity toward enhancing essential tenets of the nursing profession. Nevertheless, this paper has identified the following challenges that could still act as a barrier towards the successful integration of AI in healthcare; Challenges in training, technical issues as well as ethical issues.

Aim: The purpose of this research is also to investigate the effect of adopting AI-based DSS with critical care units, find out the difficulties nurses experience in doing their job, and determine how useful AI is in enhancing patient care.

Method: Cross-sectional study was employed by administering self-developed questionnaires to 112 registered nurses working in CCUs in Amman, Jordan. Surveys were administered in relation to their interactions with these smart technologies, the perceived advantages, difficulties and training requirements.

Results: The study showed that implementations of AI technologies are beneficial for nursing workflows by increasing time optimization, patients’ observation, and choosing the most effective treatment. However, the nurses stated some of the problems encountered including lack of adequate training time, technical issues and issues to do with the confidentiality of the information collected. Furthermore, the literature studies focused on several aspects such as highlighting that AI technology in nursing is still at a developing stage and few of these papers provided real-life usage and effectiveness data.

Conclusion: The use of AI-based DSS seems to have benefits in augmenting callous scripting of the nursing’s peak tasks in critical care contexts. However, questions and concerns such as training for using AI and other technical issues, or concern for the ethics involved must be solved for the AI to be optimally used for practice of nursing. Further studies should examine the subsequent beneficial effects of AI, the involving of nurses in AI advancement, and the integration of the course on the benefits of AI application in nursing to prepare future nurses.