Nurses Rally Against AI in Healthcare: Demanding Safe Staffing and Patient Protections

Many Northern California registered nurses to march in support of staffing, patient protections against AI

Thousands of registered nurse members of National Nurses United, including many in Northern California, will be participating in marches and rallies on Thursday, demanding safe staffing levels and patient safeguards with the introduction of artificial intelligence, the NNU says. More than 100,000 NNU members are entering contract negotiations, saying they "plan to confront industry decisions that undermine patients' health and well-being and fail to address chronic RN recruitment and retention issues - in favor of increasing profits." "We will fight fearlessly against the profit-driven hospital industry, which seeks to undermine nursing care through unconscionable understaffing and reckless automation," said Nancy Hagans, a registered nurse and president of NNU. The NNU said solutions include mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and prevention plans for workplace violence. They say the solutions will help address the hospital staffing crisis. Kaiser Permanente said its been notified of the demonstrations at various locations in Northern California. The health care company says it will not impact its operations. "Kaiser Permanente is empowering nurses with state-of-the-art tools and technologies that support our mission of providing high-quality, affordable health care to best meet our members' and patients' needs," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We have consistently invested in and embraced technology that enables nurses to work more effectively, resulting in improved patient outcomes and nurse satisfaction, and we will continue to do so." The statement also addressed AI, saying AI tools don't make medical decisions but they believe it could be useful to help physicians and employees while also enhancing members' experience. The NNU said the marches will be in Washington D.C., Texas and across California. The rally in Sacramento will start at the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center to Methodist Hospital of Sacramento from 8 a.m.- 9 a.m.

Thousands of registered nurse members to hold rallies in Northern California

Thousands of registered nurse members of National Nurses United, including many in Northern California, will be participating in marches and rallies on Thursday demanding safe staffing levels and patent safeguards with the introduction of artificial intelligence, the NNU says.