The following is a guest article by Ali Morin, MSN, RN, NI-BC, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at symplr
When I was a pediatric critical care nurse, I saw firsthand how deeply we’re called to care for patients and their families. I’ll never forget watching a team of seasoned nurses care for a fragile baby like he was their own and comfort his mom like she was family. That moment stayed with me. It showed me that even when we’re exhausted and overwhelmed, nurses always show up with heart, skill, and gut instinct.
That’s why, as artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies rapidly make their way to the bedside, we have to ensure those tools strengthen – not replace – that connection.
Nurses are feeling the pressure right now. Technology is evolving fast, and there’s a lot of excitement, but also a lot of fear. Plenty of nurses are worried AI might strip away the parts of their job that give them purpose, or worse, make their day-to-day work even harder to manage. That fear is real and valid. As nurse leaders, we need to help our teams navigate these changes in a way that builds trust, safeguards their expertise, and ultimately makes their jobs easier rather than harder.
Bring Nurses to the Table Early and Speak Their Language
One of the biggest issues I see is that nurses are often the last to hear about new technologies. The decisions are already made, the rollout is happening, and suddenly, they’re expected to catch up. When that happens, it’s no surprise there’s pushback. Nurses aren’t pushing back because they don’t like technology; they’re pushing back because they were left out.
When nurses are involved from the start and they’re part of picking, shaping, and testing new tools, the entire conversation changes. It shifts from “How can we make nurses use this?” to “How can we make this work for nurses?” I’ve seen this firsthand at organizations that invite bedside nurses to help design scheduling tools, triage processes, and mobile solutions. When nurses see their fingerprints on a tool, they don’t have to be sold on it because they’re already on board.
But just inviting nurses to the table isn’t enough. We have to speak their language. Nurses don’t need buzzwords like “machine learning” or “predictive algorithms.” They need to know: How will this actually help me care for my patients? How will it save me time? When we keep the explanation simple – “This will help you spot patient risk faster”, or “This can cut down on tedious paperwork” – that’s when trust starts to grow.
As clinical informatics nurses, this is part of our job. We’re here to translate the tech-speak into what really matters for nurses on the floor. We’re also here to fight for tools that actually solve the right problems.
Real-World Wins Build Real Trust
Trust is built by showing actual results. Nurses trust a new system when they hear from a peer: “This tool saved me time when triage was backed up,” or “It helped me chart that complicated admission much faster.”
I’ve seen it happen. I’ve talked with nurses who saw triage tools powered by AI speed up decisions, who shaved minutes off each patient encounter thanks to smarter documentation tools, and who used predictive analytics to spot patient risks they wouldn’t have caught as quickly on their own. These aren’t empty promises; these are real wins that matter.
That’s how trust is built. Not by saying this might help someday, but by showing that it’s already making a difference for nurses right now.
What Does the Future Vision Look Like?
If we want nurses to trust AI, we can’t just drop it into their workflows and expect them to figure it out. Trust has to be built step by step. Here’s how to start:
- Involve Nurses From Day One: They should help shape the workflows, test the tools, and decide how it’s rolled out instead of just reacting to what is handed to them
- Explain the Why: Skip the tech jargon, tell nurses exactly how the tool will make their work safer, easier, and faster
- Show Proof, Not Promises: Share peer stories and real results; nurses trust other nurses more than they trust a technology company or an executive
- Keep the Conversations Going: Trust isn’t a one-time thing; after launch, keep listening to nurses, tweaking the tools, and showing them that their input drives real change
- Protect the Human Connection: Technology should never pull nurses away from their patients; it should give them more time for what really matters
Nurses also need to feel comfortable asking hard questions about the technology they’re being asked to use: Is this tool easy to use? Does it actually fit into my day? Who trained the AI? Could this system have blind spots or bias? When nurses feel safe to push back, they’re not just protecting themselves – they’re protecting their patients, too.
So, What’s Next?
AI isn’t going anywhere. But if we want it to really work in healthcare, we can’t just build it for nurses. We have to build it with them. It’s on us, as nurse leaders, to create an environment where nurses feel confident, supported, and in control when they use these tools.
When we bring nurses in early, keep the language clear, and prove the value, we can help them see AI not as something to fear but as something that can help. And when that happens, we can all get back to what we came here to do: caring for our patients, with the time, heart, and skill they deserve.
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