Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.

AI: Fully automatable - AI voice assistants and triage chatbots can answer patient calls, gather information, provide guidance, and determine appropriate routing or escalation in most routine cases.

Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.

AI: Fully automatable - Connected sensors and devices (automated cuffs, scales, thermometers, wearables) plus AI integrations can measure and automatically record vital signs and anthropometrics.

Sterilize equipment and supplies, using germicides, sterilizer, or autoclave.

AI: Fully automatable - Sterilization processes (germicides, autoclaves, sterilizers) are already highly automated and can be fully managed by machines and software with minimal human intervention.

Make appointments, keep records, or perform other clerical duties in doctors' offices or clinics.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025 AI systems integrated with EHRs and scheduling software can fully handle appointment setting, transcription, and many clerical record-keeping tasks end-to-end.

Inventory and requisition supplies and instruments.

AI: Fully automatable - Inventory tracking and automated requisitioning are widely automated by AI-driven supply-chain and inventory management systems that can operate end-to-end.

Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.

AI: Partial - AI can automate documentation and guide dosing and pump settings, but cannot autonomously perform the physical, regulated task of administering medications or initiating IVs without human clinicians.

Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.

AI: Partial - AI can continuously monitor, detect changes, and generate charts/alerts, but cannot autonomously execute many of the necessary clinical interventions or fully replace human judgment in responses.

Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.

AI: Partial - AI can automate simple measurements and provide guidance, but most basic patient care tasks listed (wound dressing, enemas, catheterizations) require hands-on clinical skills and cannot be fully automated.

Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions.

AI: Partial - Assessing needs, planning/modifying care, and implementing interventions require hands‑on clinical judgment, interpersonal coordination, and physical actions that AI can support but not fully perform.

Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.

AI: Partial - Supervision involves accountability, interpersonal leadership, and real‑time oversight where AI can assist (monitoring, scheduling, guidance) but cannot fully replace human supervisors.

Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze outcomes and suggest interpretations, but final evaluation and multidisciplinary discussion require human clinical judgment and communication.

Provide medical treatment or personal care to patients in private home settings, such as cooking, keeping rooms orderly, seeing that patients are comfortable and in good spirits, or instructing family members in simple nursing tasks.

AI: Partial - AI can provide remote monitoring, reminders, and caregiver instruction but cannot physically perform hands-on personal care tasks like cooking, bathing, or direct patient handling.

Assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, or oxygen suppliers.

AI: Partial - Assembling and using invasive or life‑support equipment demands manual dexterity, sterile technique, and on‑the‑spot adjustments that AI can guide but not fully execute in typical clinical settings.

Set up equipment and prepare medical treatment rooms.

AI: Partial - AI can guide workflows and preconfigure equipment settings, but reliably performing the varied physical setup tasks across clinical environments remains only partially automatable.

Record food and fluid intake and output.

AI: Partial - Recording intake/output can be partly automated with sensors and computer vision, but variability, exceptions, and clinical context mean full automation is not generally reliable yet.

Collect samples, such as blood, urine, or sputum from patients, and perform routine laboratory tests on samples.

AI: Partial - Routine laboratory testing is commonly automated in labs, but patient sample collection (especially blood draws) still generally requires human skill and supervision, so only partial automation is feasible.

Prepare patients for examinations, tests, or treatments and explain procedures.

AI: Partial - AI can generate explanations and guide preparation steps, but physical patient preparation and communication-sensitive consent/comfort tasks still require human caregivers.

Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.

AI: Partial - Helping with bathing, dressing, hygiene, and mobility requires complex physical assistance, safety judgment, and empathy that AI/robots can augment but not fully replace in most settings.

Prepare or examine food trays for conformance to prescribed diet.

AI: Partial - AI can verify diet conformance using orders, labels, and image analysis, but most facilities still rely on humans for the physical preparation of food trays.

Clean rooms and make beds.

AI: Partial - AI-enabled robots and tools can handle some cleaning tasks, but comprehensive room cleaning and bed-making remain primarily manual and only partially automated.

Assist in delivery, care, or feeding of infants.

AI: Partial - AI can monitor, advise, and assist caregivers with feeding and infant care, but cannot reliably perform hands-on roles such as assisting in deliveries or direct infant handling.

Apply compresses, ice bags, or hot water bottles.

AI: Partial - Applying compresses or heat/cold packs is a simple physical task that AI can instruct or be assisted by robotics, but routine clinical practice still depends on human caregivers for safe, context‑sensitive application.

Wash and dress bodies of deceased persons.

AI: Not automatable - Washing and dressing deceased persons are sensitive, hands-on tasks requiring human care and dignity that AI cannot perform.