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AI and the Future of Care Work: What Every Health Worker Needs to Know
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here with us, and it is transforming the way we work, interact and provide care to others in our communities.
AI has been used and continues to be used by recruiters and companies to scan resumes, rank candidates, schedule interviews and improve recruitment outcomes to free up human recruiters to focus on more strategic work requirements.
AI is now entrenched into almost all aspects of work environment.
This year alone, Australian government is investing almost $30 million in research to establish new ways in which AI can be used to help improve access to health care services and ensure that Australian health care system provides world class service to its citizens.
What does this mean for Health and Community Care workers?
Across Australia, AI continue to improve on care provision. It is helping widens access to medical services, improve client outcomes, reduce operating costs and helps clinicians make quicker and more precise decisions regarding treatment and care support.
According to Becruitment, an Australian recruitment and talent acquisition agency, Service providers in Aged Care, Disability and Mental Health sectors are now using AI tools to enhance the delivery of person-centred care.
Although AI can be used to perform some work-related duties, AI cannot not replace or substitute the worker. AI works in complementary with the worker to ease productivity.
Increased efficiency in care productivity in contemporary economy is said to be dependent the human–AI collaboration. In Community and healthcare sector, this means the combination of cognitive strengths of health and community care workers with the analytical capabilities of AI.
AI cannot replace a care worker or clinician in health and community care sector. It complements the work of a care worker and clinician
Although the idea of using AI in work productivity is fascinating, essentially, AI is not meant to replace doctors, clinicians, nurses, disability or aged care workers. Its main purpose in health and community care is to repurpose roles and improve efficiency, AI is used mainly to simply operations and free the worker to perform more crucial duties. AI is mainly used in care in the following areas:
- To optimize schedules and restoring.
- In clinical sets up like hospitals, AI is used in analyzing data and providing instant client information summaries, alerts on clients at risk of hospital admission or relapse. This information can be used to aid provision of early intervention.
- To help with data entry and case noting allowing care workers and clinicians to focus on crucial areas of client care needs.
What are the limitations of AI in health and community care work?
At the core of care and clinical work, is empathy, trust, and human connectivity. This cuts across all sectors of human services; aged care, disability support, youth work, medicine and nursing among other sections.
AI cannot work independently. To maintain safety, client information privacy and quality in healthcare services, AI systems need to be guided, communicated, and supervised by human expertise.
Above are some of the things that artificial intelligence is lacking and purely cannot replicate because AI is not human.
what does this mean for the future of employers and job seekers in community and health care sectors?
The future of recruitment in community and Healthcare indicate that employers continue to embrace system automation and AI influence. As a result, there is growing demand for soft skills, hybrid and flexible work arrangements and significant push for upskilling and reskilling of employees and job seekers to make employment efficient and sustainable.
Employers and recruiters are now keen at looking for job seekers who can prove that they are adaptable to these changes, demonstrate digital confidence, and are committed to continuous learning.
With advancement of AI and system automation, employers need to provide employees with change management training, inclusive technology adoption to fully capitalise on the benefits of AI without disadvantaging or isolating their employees.
Q. As a worker in community and healthcare, where do you find yourself in all these?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10328041