How AI is helping reduce nursing burnout in hospitals

Modern Healthcare – Friday, November 21, 2025
By Gabriel Perna

Health systems’ expanding artificial intelligence plans are shifting to another area in need of disruption: nursing.

Physician documentation in the electronic health record and revenue cycle management have been the dominant use cases for AI at health systems. Organizations also are looking at nursing, a profession with significant burnout and workforce shortages, as the next operational challenge to tackle with AI.

“We want to give back time to the nurses, and be able to take away all of those things that have been added to their plate year after year,” said Randy Geiselhart, a nurse manager at Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network, which is using AI to help nurses monitor patients virtually.

The trend hasn’t gone unnoticed by health tech vendors. Companies such as Microsoft, Abridge and Epic have rolled out AI tools this year to help nurses with documentation, clinical decision support and other tasks.

Here is how three health systems are using AI for nursing.

Henry Ford Health

Detroit-based Henry Ford Health wanted AI to help its nurses operate at the top of their licenses, said Eric Wallis, chief nursing officer at the system. After a yearlong search and thorough evaluation of AI vendors, the health system selected products from Care.ai, which was acquired by Stryker in September 2024.

The health system uses an AI-enabled camera embedded in the TV in patient rooms. The camera is equipped with sensors that scan a room and a microphone for ambient listening, which can transcribe patient-nurse conversations and turn them into clinical notes. Virtual nurses who are monitoring the rooms can help with admission and discharge paperwork, do quality and safety checks and use an early warning system that detects potential patient falls.

Henry Ford piloted the program for eight months at its Jackson, Michigan, hospital. The early results have been promising, Wallis said.

“Our length of stay in our virtual units is down 10.2%,” Wallis said. “We’re seeing patients go home earlier. We’re seeing patient experience scores be higher, and we’re seeing things like lower rates of overtime and turnover on our virtual units.”

Wallis said involving nurses in the process helped reduce any resistance to change. The change management element will be critical as Henry Ford plans to expand the nursing AI tools to additional units and hospitals, he said.

Providence

The adoption of AI for nursing comes down to a simple truth for Renton, Washington-based Providence. There aren’t enough nurses to care for patients and the patients they are seeing have more complex medical issues, said Dr. Sylvain Trepanier, chief nursing officer.

Providence has adopted several AI tools to address the issue. It uses ambient AI technology to help nurses document in the electronic health record system. Predictive AI is used to identify patients at risk for sepsis and other conditions, which helps nurses prioritize patients based on need, said Elizabeth Petrich-Kennedy, chief nursing informatics officer.

The health system also has multiple AI tools that can communicate with patients directly, either through email or a chatbot. The tools help reduce the nurses’ workload by off-loading administrative work, Petrich-Kennedy said.

The early results have helped Providence leaders convince nurses who were hesitant to embrace AI. The ambient tools have decreased burnout among nurses, according to Providence’s internal survey.

“The biggest risk we have in healthcare and in nursing is to maintain the status quo,” Trepanier said. “We have to innovate. We have to figure out ways to lean into AI, as scary as it may sound.”
HonorHealth

HonorHealth, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based health system, is using AI to help nurses with phone calls to patients before surgery. When patients are preparing for surgery, nurses typically are on the phone with them, going through their medical record and ensuring they will be ready. It’s a time-consuming process, said Lisa Burgin, network director or preadmission testing.

Enter AI. The health system is using an AI voice software program from Qventus to help obtain and label patient medical records before surgery. It helps the surgical team know if they are safe to move ahead with the procedure and has reduced hours of manual labor, Burgin said.

There is also a feature that communicates with patients to let them know what they need to do to prepare for the surgery. For instance, if a patient has to get off a medication, the AI tool will inform them.

“The AI is reviewing medical records and it’s tailoring its questions to the patient,” Burgin said. “We’re not asking them, ‘Do you have a pacemaker?’ If we know they have a pacemaker, we’re being smart about it and asking, ‘When did you last have the pacemaker interrogated to make sure it’s working properly before surgery.’”

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