AI exposure: Nurse Midwives
Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological care. Must have specialized, graduate nursing education.
Reading this score
computedAt 18.6% of weighted task load, Nurse Midwives sits at the 32th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 56.6% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 21 tasks it averages 2.71 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic..., at 53.3%. The least is Manage newborn care during the first weeks of life, at 0.0%. A gap of 53.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 89 roles in the group is 18.4%, and only 43 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 21 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 7 assisted and 10 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.69 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.24 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.90 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.64 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.90 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.71 | 0-3 |
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.97 | exposed |
| Document findings of physical examinations. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.76 | exposed |
| Educate patients and family members regarding prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, newborn, or interconception care. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.76 | exposed |
| Write information in medical records or provide narrative summaries to communicate patient information to other health care providers. | 37.9% | 49.6% | 12.5% | 4.70 | assisted |
| Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.91 | assisted |
| Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in midwifery. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.39 | exposed |
| Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.85 | assisted |
| Establish practice guidelines for specialty areas such as primary health care of women, care of the childbearing family, and newborn care. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.06 | assisted |
| Conduct clinical research on topics such as maternal or infant health care, contraceptive methods, breastfeeding, and gynecological care. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.53 | assisted |
| Consult with or refer patients to appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise. | 15.0% | 35.0% | 50.0% | 4.45 | assisted |
| Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.88 | assisted |
| Plan, provide, or evaluate educational programs for nursing staff, health care teams, or the community. | 11.2% | 26.2% | 62.5% | 3.67 | untouched |
| Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.91 | untouched |
| Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 5.00 | untouched |
| Instruct student nurse midwives, medical students, or residents on the birthing process. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Perform physical examinations by taking vital signs, checking neurological reflexes, examining breasts, or performing pelvic examinations. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.75 | untouched |
| Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 5.00 | untouched |
| Provide patients with direct family planning services, such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers, including cervical caps or diaphragms. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.94 | untouched |
| Initiate emergency interventions to stabilize patients. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.82 | untouched |
| Provide primary health care, including pregnancy and childbirth, to women. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Manage newborn care during the first weeks of life. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.44 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.