Nurse practitioners are playing an ever-growing role in the delivery of healthcare. They're vital members of the provider team. The future of the nurse practitioner profession looks bright, and fast-moving technology developments are a big reason why. 

To learn more, we spoke recently with Stephen A. Ferrara, DNP, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and associate dean for artificial intelligence in the office of AI at the Columbia University School of Nursing.

Ferrara offered his thoughts on the continued evolution of nursing informatics, now and in the years ahead. And, by way of example, he described an innovative new AI project he's pursuing at Columbia.

Q. What does the future of the nurse practitioner profession look like, and what role will technology play?

A. The future of the nurse practitioner profession is bright and continually evolving to meet the demand for high-quality, patient-centered healthcare. Patients, policymakers and the healthcare system are rightly embracing the profession as essential to strengthening access to care. With an aging population and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, the demand for NPs will continue to grow.

The majority of states now grant NPs full practice authority, which gives patients a choice of healthcare provider and authorizes NPs to diagnose, treat and prescribe medications under the exclusive licensure of the state board of nursing.

This trend toward modernizing licensure will continue – empowering NPs to strengthen patient outcomes and access to care and alleviating pressure on our overburdened healthcare system by providing patients with timely and efficient care.

This is a pivotal time for technology in healthcare. Technology has the power to help enhance the delivery of patient care and the efficiency of our healthcare system, and NPs will be at the forefront of integrating these innovations into effective health practice. Integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into healthcare is happening in real time.

Not only is AI able to assist NPs and other providers in synthesizing vast amounts of patient data coming from wearable devices and other sources but to rapidly synthesizing vast amounts of patient data coming from wearable devices and other sources, but it also aids in the rapid diagnosis of illness and recognition of disease progression.

In the near future, we believe AI can enable health professionals to spend more time interacting with patients and less time typing, clicking and looking at computer screens.

Telehealth will become increasingly important, enabling NPs to serve geographically dispersed patients without adequate access to care. Additionally, NPs will utilize data from patients' wearable devices, other remote patient monitoring tools, and AI to track patients and help them manage their health conditions.

Despite the many challenges facing our healthcare system, the future will bring NPs exciting new possibilities to improve patient care. As we look to the future, the profession is poised to embrace – and lead – the use of new technologies to strengthen the delivery of high-quality care.

Q. You are working on an AI project at the Columbia University School of Nursing. Please talk about the technology and the goals of your project.

A. On July 1, I took on a new role at Columbia University School of Nursing as the associate dean for artificial intelligence, in its newly established Office of AI. The office will officially launch in the fall of 2024 and will use AI to further advance the school's pillars of education, research and clinical practice; along with operational excellence.

My role is to amplify the work of the research faculty who have already produced cutting-edge outcomes utilizing AI technology, prepare our educators to utilize AI to improve NP education and patient care, and enable the NP profession to use AI in their practice. We're proud to launch this work and build on Columbia's longstanding and robust portfolio of technology leadership. A fall symposium is planned to delve further into AI and nursing.

I have devised a strategic plan for the office that involves surveying faculty and staff to assess their knowledge of AI and their readiness to incorporate AI into their work. I will use the survey findings to develop educational sessions and workshops to prepare our teams. In addition, an AI Advisory Group will be formed to create cohesive policies and provide guidance on the effective use of AI for education and clinical practice.

AI is becoming increasingly important, and we want our NPs to be proficient in this technology right from the start so they can create innovative solutions for our patients.

Q. What do you think the continued evolution of nursing informatics looks like for the years ahead?

A. As more health systems adopt digital technologies, nursing informatics will prove essential to the effective management and analysis of health data to improve patient care across all settings.

With support from interdisciplinary teams of nursing informaticists, engineers, data scientists and others, there is tremendous potential to extract essential insights from vast amounts of data. This will enable NPs and other health professionals to identify trends, predict likely patient outcomes and inform clinical decision-making.

Nursing informatics also will help fuel the continued expansion of telehealth and remote patient monitoring, ensuring telecommunication technologies are effectively integrated into clinical workflows, protecting the security and privacy of patient data, and training healthcare staff on the use of these tools.

Wearable devices and mobile health applications are generating continuous streams of health data, which must be efficiently managed and analyzed to provide effective interventions. The unprecedented volume of data we have today necessitates the assistance of AI in interpretation.

We believe informatics will support a proactive approach and more preventive care, which is key to NP-delivered care, and has the power to reduce hospital readmissions and improve chronic disease management.

Nursing informatics tools not only empower NPs but also put patients in the driver's seat of their health. NPs will use patient portals, mobile apps and other technologies to involve patients, educate them about their conditions and encourage adherence to treatment plans.

NPs will play a pivotal role in leveraging informatics to enhance clinical practice, improve patient outcomes and navigate the complexities of the digital healthcare environment. Technology holds the promise of allowing us to achieve the Quintuple Aim of improving population health, enhancing the care experience, reducing costs, reducing clinician burnout and championing health equity.

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