Every year, since 1976, the Gallup Poll releases Ethics Rankings for American Professions. On January 12th, the Gallup Poll’s 2025 rankings were released and again ranked nurses at the top of the list for ethical standards. This result is the 24th consecutive year of ranking at the top of the list of professions.

I speak on this often but why this year feels different is due to the continued socio-technical challenges we face with finding the right balance between what humans can do (and should do) versus what technology can do (and should do) in healthcare.

I started my career as a bedside nurse. Every shift I strived to give the best possible care available to each of my patients. Sometimes this meant refusing patients because the ones I had needed me too much to take on another one. Sometimes this meant pushing the medical or surgical team to decide who was responsible for the patient because the data I had did not look quite right to me. Sometimes this meant spending hours sifting through papers to figure out when the newly transferred ICU patient was due for meds because it just was not at all as clear as it could be. “It’s all there” I might hear. (Yes, it is all there buried in dozens of pages of small print).

Your decisions are guided by what is best for the patient as well as what is ethically sound. The nurse patient relationship is essential to know that patient and for the patient to know one’s care. Establishing trust is critical for that relationship as patients are vulnerable to the care they receive and who is providing that care.

Therefore, as we advance technology such as artificial intelligence that is more complex for the population, there must also be awareness on how these tools do or don’t work. Any technology tool that is used becomes an extension of the human’s care delivery. With approximately 50% of the U.S. population concerned about the use of AI in daily life, this creates a potential for mistrust in the care environment if AI is not articulated, understood and effectively used consistently for care.

Thus, as nurses and healthcare professionals, it is critical that we advocate for the tools that can assist in ways that improve our experience in delivering quality patient care rather than replace core functions of what it means to be a nurse. The patients depend on it, even if they do not say it.

~ Dr. Kelley