Technological breakthroughs occur at an ever-increasing rate thereby revolutionizing human health and wellness care. Technological advancements have drastically changed the structure and organization of the healthcare industry. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that 800 million workers worldwide could be replaced by robots by the year 2030. There is already a robotic revolution happening in healthcare wherein robots have made tasks and procedures more efficient and safer. Locsin and Ito has addressed the threat to nursing practice with human nurses being replaced by humanoid robots. Routine nursing care dictated solely by prescribed procedures and accomplishment of nursing tasks would be best performed by machines. With the future practice of nursing in a technologically advanced future transcending the implementation of nursing actions to achieve predictable outcomes, how can human nurses remain relevant as practitioners of nursing? Nurses should be involved in deciding which aspects of their practice can be delegated to technology. Nurses should oversee the introduction of automated technology and artificial intelligence ensuring their practice to be more about the universal aspects of human care continuing under a novel system. Nursing education and nursing research will change to encompass a differentiated demand for professional nursing practice with, and not for, robots in healthcare.
: The coexistence of technology and caring is best exemplified in nursing. The theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing illuminates this coexistence as the essence of technology in health care premised on machine technologies as a generic concept of objects or things that are mechanical, organic, and electronic. With its timely development these technologies are continually imbued with artificial general intelligence. As such, the ultimate expression of machine technologies in nursing turns out to be autonomous robots (ARs) with future potentials of functions comparable to human persons. While theory-based nursing practice is essential to nursing care practice, quality human care, particularly with technologies assuming indispensable practice process mechanisms is critical. Some practice-based questions informing ARs and human person engagements in nursing care practice include, "Will ARs which are imbued with artificial intelligence replace nurses in their practice?" "What contributions to quality human health care will autonomous and artificially intelligent robots provide?" While these questions may reflect far-reaching ramifications of technologies in health care, it must also be acknowledged that these technologies are fundamental to the delivery of quality human health care now, and in the future.
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