Welcoming immigrants and robots to fill the nursing shortage
December 23rd, 2009 by 
David E. Williams of the Health business blog
In Nursing crisis looms as baby boomers age, CNN Money repeats a well-known story: there are unlikely to be enough nurses to take care of people as they age. Nursing schools can’t keep up with the demand and trouble awaits. We’ll face a shortage of 260,000 RNs by 2025, we’re told.
I don’t really believe it’s such a big deal.
There are two good solutions to the problem, and they aren’t mutually exclusive:
- Increase the recruitment of nurses from abroad
- Substitute technology for labor
The first option is already in effect to some extent. But anti-immigrant attitudes and rules limit the number of non-US nurses here. There are also an ethical considerations; when nurses from middle income countries like South Africa and Thailand come to the US, it creates a shortage of nurses in those countries. Some of those shortages are filled by bringing nurses from poor countries to middle income countries. That leaves the poor countries bereft at a time of tough challenges such as HIV and TB.
The second solution essentially means replacing at least some nurses (or some of their functions) with technology, including robots. A lot of things nurses do will be doable by machine, if not this year then certainly by 2025. These robots will take many forms, but one could certainly be as a “personal medical assistant” that handles most mundane functions. It could check vitals, provide encouragement, remind patients to take their medications, and go beyond those tasks to other areas, such as playing games, cleaning the house, making food, and even engaging in pleasant conversation.
This technology trend shouldn’t encounter too much resistance from nurses, who after all should still have plenty of opportunities for employment.
The nursing workforce issues are real, but they provide opportunities for innovation, not cause for panic.
Posted in Technology | 
19 Comments »
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I think iRobot is well along the way to making that happen!
December 31st, 2009 at 8:45 am
[...] could headed for big trouble, with health-care providers stretched to the breaking point. Not so, says the Health Business Blog. The solution lies in first in stepping up efforts to recruit nurses from foreign countries, the [...]
January 1st, 2010 at 5:41 pm
[...] could headed for big trouble, with health-care providers stretched to the breaking point. Not so, says the Health Business Blog. The solution lies in first in stepping up efforts to recruit nurses from foreign countries, the [...]
January 6th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
[...] pre-Xmas post Welcoming immigrants and robots to fill the nursing shortage has taken a lot of flak from commenters on the Health Care Blog and Glorfindel of Gondolin, who [...]
January 6th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
[...] pre-Xmas post Welcoming immigrants and robots to fill the nursing shortage has taken a lot of flak from commenters on the Health Care Blog and Glorfindel of Gondolin, who [...]
January 8th, 2010 at 4:56 am
[...] pre-Xmas post Welcoming immigrants and robots to fill the nursing shortage has taken a lot of flak from commenters on the Health Care Blog and Glorfindel of Gondolin, who [...]
February 24th, 2010 at 12:02 am
[...] return to my (controversial) enthusiasm for robot nurses. Sure, it sounds like a great idea to have a consistent nurse’s aide for a resident as called for [...]
February 24th, 2010 at 12:29 am
[...] return to my (controversial) enthusiasm for robot nurses. Sure, it sounds like a great idea to have a consistent nurse’s aide for a resident as called for [...]
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:52 am
The robots then rebel, feeling they no longer need humans and are just as capable without them.
August 30th, 2010 at 8:02 am
[...] This item originally ran on December 23, 2009. I took a lot of undeserved flak for this one. Maybe people thought I was being disrespectful toward nurses. If you’d like to comment, please do so on the original post. [...]
August 30th, 2010 at 8:38 am
[...] This item originally ran on December 23, 2009. I took a lot of undeserved flak for this one. Maybe people thought I was being disrespectful toward nurses. If you’d like to comment, please do so on the original post. [...]
January 14th, 2011 at 2:23 am
[...] could headed for big trouble, with health-care providers stretched to the breaking point. Not so, says the Health Business Blog. The solution lies in first in stepping up efforts to recruit nurses from foreign countries, the [...]
March 14th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
[...] taken a lot of grief in the past for my prediction that robots will play a key role in nursing over the long term. There will still [...]
January 15th, 2012 at 11:09 am
[...] pharma, biotech, and medical devices. Formerly with BCG and LEK. He blogs regularly at the Health Business Blog, where this post first appeared. Email This [...]
March 21st, 2012 at 11:16 pm
[...] simply assume that nurses will be used as they are today. I’ve taken heat for writing that robots will replace a lot of nurse functions over time. People seem to be offended by that notion and have accused me of not having sufficient [...]
July 11th, 2012 at 8:01 am
[...] cool. But it’s also that I love how disruptive robots can be to existing markets, such as the market for nursing labor. So I was thrilled that the Father of All Cavalcades, Hank Stern let a robot/insurance piece slip [...]
January 14th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
[...] but simply assume that nurses will be used as they are today. I’ve taken heat for writing that robots will replace a lot of nurse functions over time. People seem to be offended by that notion and have accused me of not having sufficient [...]
January 16th, 2013 at 9:26 am
[...] but simply assume that nurses will be used as they are today. I’ve taken heat for writing that robots will replace a lot of nurse functions over time. People seem to be offended by that notion and have accused me of not having sufficient [...]
January 28th, 2013 at 10:36 am
[...] If this is the case, one could say the shortage will be even worse than predicted, even if robots are doing part of the [...]