Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.
U.S. Workers
3,282,010
Median Salary
$93,600
10-Year Growth
+4.9%
Annual Openings
189,100
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
27 of 28 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.
AI: Fully automatable - AI-driven documentation tools can generate, update, and maintain accurate, detailed medical records from inputs and speech, enabling full automation of recordkeeping with proper integration and validation.
Record patients' medical information and vital signs.
AI: Fully automatable - AI and integrated medical devices can automatically capture and enter patient medical data and vital signs into EHRs reliably, so recording can be fully automated.
Conduct specified laboratory tests.
AI: Fully automatable - Many specified laboratory tests are routinely performed by automated analyzers and AI-driven workflows that can run, interpret, and report results without manual intervention for standard assays.
Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate tailored educational content, deliver instruction at scale, and design health improvement programs, performing these tasks end-to-end in many contexts.
Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects.
AI: Partial - AI can monitor patients for reactions, analyze vitals, and automate dispensing workflows, but cannot wholly replace human clinicians for bedside medication administration, clinical judgment, and emergency responses.
Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
AI: Partial - AI can continuously monitor objective signals and flag/report changes but struggles with nuanced, subjective symptom interpretation and contextual clinical judgment.
Inform physician of patient's condition during anesthesia.
AI: Partial - AI can monitor vitals, detect anomalies, and generate alerts or summaries in real time, but directly communicating nuanced intraoperative status and making immediate clinical decisions remains a human task.
Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans.
AI: Partial - AI can summarize data, propose care plans, and coordinate communications, but cannot fully replace human clinical decision-making and interpersonal consultation.
Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend treatment adjustments based on data trends, but legal/ethical constraints and complex clinical judgment mean humans must authorize modifications.
Provide health care, first aid, immunizations, or assistance in convalescence or rehabilitation in locations such as schools, hospitals, or industry.
AI: Partial - AI can support and augment healthcare delivery (triage, guidance, documentation, reminders) but cannot fully replace the hands‑on delivery of first aid, immunizations, or rehabilitation care.
Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
AI: Partial - AI can monitor diet and activity via apps and wearables and integrate those data, but comprehensive monitoring of all care aspects (contextual, non-digital behaviors) remains partial.
Hand items to surgeons during operations.
AI: Partial - Robotic systems can assist instrument transfer in controlled settings, but widespread, reliable autonomous handing of items to surgeons still requires human scrub techs or direct human supervision.
Direct or supervise less-skilled nursing or healthcare personnel or supervise a particular unit.
AI: Partial - AI can assist with scheduling, task assignment, and performance analytics but cannot fully perform the leadership, accountability, and nuanced supervision that humans provide.
Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments.
AI: Partial - AI can guide preparation steps and control some devices, but hands-on preparation and physical assistance for exams/treatments still require human clinicians or specialized robots not widely available.
Observe nurses and visit patients to ensure proper nursing care.
AI: Partial - AI can continuously monitor care quality via sensors and EHR analytics and flag concerns, but authoritative supervision, evaluation, and in‑person patient visits remain human responsibilities.
Assess the needs of individuals, families, or communities, including assessment of individuals' home or work environments, to identify potential health or safety problems.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze surveys, images, and sensor data to identify risks at individual or community levels, but in-person environmental assessment and nuanced needs evaluation remain only partially automatable.
Direct or coordinate infection control programs, advising or consulting with specified personnel about necessary precautions.
AI: Partial - AI can run surveillance, model outbreaks, and recommend precautions, but directing and coordinating infection control programs requires human leadership, policy decisions, and stakeholder engagement.
Engage in research activities related to nursing.
AI: Partial - AI can perform literature reviews, data analysis, and draft manuscripts to accelerate research, but conceptual design, ethical oversight, and leadership of studies remain human-led activities.
Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures.
AI: Partial - AI can generate evidence-based medication and therapy recommendations and decision support but cannot legally or safely autonomously prescribe or assume full treatment responsibility without a licensed clinician.
Order, interpret, and evaluate diagnostic tests to identify and assess patient's condition.
AI: Partial - AI can interpret many diagnostic tests (e.g., imaging, labs) and suggest orders, but ordering and final evaluation remain clinician responsibilities and require contextual clinical judgment.
Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
AI: Partial - AI can support remote triage and provide tentative differential diagnoses, but cannot perform hands‑on physical examinations or independently deliver on-site emergency care.
Prepare rooms, sterile instruments, equipment, or supplies and ensure that stock of supplies is maintained.
AI: Partial - Inventory management and supply tracking can be fully automated, but physical preparation of rooms and sterile instruments still requires human action or specialized robotics, so the task is partially automatable.
Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.
AI: Partial - AI can automate scheduling, budgeting, analytics, and planning support, yet cannot fully assume leadership, accountability, or complex human management functions.
Provide or arrange for training or instruction of auxiliary personnel or students.
AI: Partial - AI can create curricula, training materials, simulations, and manage learning platforms, but cannot fully replace in-person clinical teaching and supervised skill assessment.
Work with individuals, groups, or families to plan or implement programs designed to improve the overall health of communities.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze population data, design program plans, and automate outreach content, but implementation and community engagement require human relationships and judgment.
Refer students or patients to specialized health resources or community agencies furnishing assistance.
AI: Partial - AI can identify and suggest specialized resources and generate referral materials, but human judgment and local coordination are required to finalize and execute referrals.
Consult with institutions or associations regarding issues or concerns relevant to the practice and profession of nursing.
AI: Partial - AI can prepare briefing materials, policy analysis, and draft communications for institutional consultation, but authoritative professional engagement and relationship-building require human practitioners.
Administer local, inhalation, intravenous, or other anesthetics.
AI: Not automatable - Administering anesthetics is an invasive, high‑risk, regulated clinical procedure requiring licensed clinicians and hands‑on judgment that AI cannot autonomously perform as of 2025.