U.S. News & World Report has interviewed American Nurses Association President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN. The interview provides a solid overview of the issues that are currently impacting the nursing profession.
Those issues include proposed changes to the U.S. Department of Education’s “professional degree” definitions that include the exclusion of nursing from the definition. Set to take effect in July, the change would limit federal student loans to $20,500 annually with a total limit of $100,000 for advanced nursing degrees, according to the media outlet.
The proposed change comes amid concerns about nursing shortages in the face of increased healthcare demand. Dr. Mensik Kennedy told U.S. News that “everyone is already seeing a drop in enrollments and admissions. This is scary … This is going to have an impact in our hospitals. We’re going to have less staffing. We're going to have fewer nurses throughout the continuum of someone’s experience in health care.”
She addressed the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare settings, saying the technology “has a lot of potential” but that “we need to integrate it appropriately.” She added that “nurses need to be at the table because oftentimes we have the IT people or the finance people looking at it from very different perspectives. But no one’s at the table who is actually going to put it into use, who’s going to be that interface between the patient and the AI technology … The nurse can provide guardrails and suggestions. We know when you don’t include those direct-care nurses in looking at technology, adoption of this type of innovation may not be successful, and it’s not because people don’t want to use it. It’s because it’s another thing on top of all of the workload they’re already doing short-staffed as it is.”
She said many doctors and nurses would welcome the use of AI to free up more time to spend with patients, but expressed trepidation that the increased efficiencies AI could provide would eat into that free time by replacing it with increased patient volume. “If technology was to lighten that load, let’s not replace it with more patients,” she told U.S. News. “Let’s give that time back so that clinicians and nurses can spend that one-on-one time that the patients are craving to be able to help them through their healthcare journey.”
Dr. Mensik Kennedy flagged workplace violence as an issue that requires more attention, noting that nurses are more likely to be assaulted at work than prison guards. “We really have to focus on safety because if clinicians don’t feel safe then the patients aren’t going to be safe, either.”
She also voiced support of nurse strikes. “When they feel that they’re not being heard or listened to or respected or paid enough, they have that right to advocate for themselves through whatever means that is, which is collective bargaining.” Calling nurses in developed nations like the U.S. “very labor focused,” she said they “just want to take care of patients and do the best that they can, and, of course, be paid fairly for the work that they do.”
Read the full interview here.
