AI exposure: Registered Nurses
Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.
Reading this score
computedAt 20.4% of weighted task load, Registered Nurses sits at the 37th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 51.7% 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 27 tasks it averages 2.54 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 Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records, at 60.0%. The least is Administer local, inhalation, intravenous, or other anesthetics, at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% 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 32 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 27 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 10 assisted and 12 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 | 1.87 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.19 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.81 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.45 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.91 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.54 | 0-3 |
Task by task
27 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.69 | exposed |
| Record patients' medical information and vital signs. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.74 | exposed |
| Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.35 | exposed |
| Work with individuals, groups, or families to plan or implement programs designed to improve the overall health of communities. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.08 | exposed |
| Consult with institutions or associations regarding issues or concerns relevant to the practice and profession of nursing. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.34 | assisted |
| Order, interpret, and evaluate diagnostic tests to identify and assess patient's condition. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.41 | assisted |
| Direct or coordinate infection control programs, advising or consulting with specified personnel about necessary precautions. | 25.0% | 37.5% | 37.5% | 4.38 | assisted |
| Inform physician of patient's condition during anesthesia. | 25.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 3.49 | assisted |
| Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions. | 22.2% | 44.4% | 33.3% | 4.61 | assisted |
| Engage in research activities related to nursing. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.42 | assisted |
| Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.42 | assisted |
| Refer students or patients to specialized health resources or community agencies furnishing assistance. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.96 | assisted |
| Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.48 | assisted |
| Conduct specified laboratory tests. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.31 | assisted |
| Prepare rooms, sterile instruments, equipment, or supplies and ensure that stock of supplies is maintained. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Provide or arrange for training or instruction of auxiliary personnel or students. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity. | 7.5% | 30.0% | 62.5% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Observe nurses and visit patients to ensure proper nursing care. | 7.5% | 17.5% | 75.0% | 4.23 | untouched |
| Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures. | 7.5% | 17.5% | 75.0% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers. | 5.2% | 28.1% | 66.7% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Direct or supervise less-skilled nursing or healthcare personnel or supervise a particular unit. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Assess the needs of individuals, families, or communities, including assessment of individuals' home or work environments, to identify potential health or safety problems. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects. | 1.7% | 10.8% | 87.5% | 4.70 | untouched |
| Provide health care, first aid, immunizations, or assistance in convalescence or rehabilitation in locations such as schools, hospitals, or industry. | 1.2% | 11.2% | 87.5% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Administer local, inhalation, intravenous, or other anesthetics. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.17 | 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.