How I use ChatGPT in my daily practice as a nurse.

ChatGPT—a language model AI that could generate brilliant, human-like responses—is perhaps the most talked about artificial intelligence model today. Well, it is not surprising that the model racked up over 100 million users after just two months of its release.

As a powerful tool, the model could be used in so many ways, from generating wonderful essays to even computer codes. As a nurse, I too have fallen in love with the model, and here is how I use it on the ward.

Documentation: "If you do not document it, then you haven't done it." As nurses, I believe we spend one-third of our lives documenting. Every single procedure, assessment, supervision, etc.—has to be on record for so many reasons. But what if I tell you ChatGPT can generate your nurses notes, care plans, and discharge notes. You don't know how to describe that wound, just have a conversation with ChatGPT on what you observed, and voila, a brilliant note will be generated.

Clinical decision: With the ability to generate fast responses with less noise (ads and inappropriate site recommendations), ChatGPT has become a true friend in generating information for clinical decision. However, there is a catch. ChatGPT cannot browse the internet in real-time hence the need to verify from appropriate sources. I remember having a patient who had undergone craniatomy and was a being fed via NGTube. Now whenever I put this patient in high-fowlers position to feed, his BP shoots up. I decided to put ChatGPT to the test and ask for its suggestions on this complex situation. To my surprise it was able to generate 5 brilliant recommendations that were very relevant to navigating and solving the problem. Oh, did I mention ChatGPT could also generate care pathways for your patients?

Stimulation training: There is no way ChatGPT can build a drill lab for my facility. However, there are times that I provide ChatGPT with actual clinical scenarios just to see how it will navigate them. I enjoy doing this at my leisure. Essentially, I end up creating strange clinical scenarios and learning about how I could navigate them.

Caution

ChatGPT is a brilliant piece of software, but like any other tool, one must learn to use it responsibly. As a nurse, you must uphold confidentiality and patient safety always even if you're talking to an AI. Personally, my caution tips include:

1. Do not input any identifying information of your patients (names, age, hospital ID) etc. You could use approximate ages, pseudonyms and other approximate parameters if they are relevant to your input for the AI.
2. Always cross check the information generated with appropriate sources such as other members of the multidisciplinary team, clinical guidelines and protocols. Remember that ChatGPT was trained on data up to 2021 and may not necessarily fit current clinical trends. Additionally, ChatGPT cannot generate accurate references for responses, hence the need to find research that supports information provided.
3. Use your own clinical judgement. Yes, artificial intelligence is exciting, but there is a reason why these bots have not replaced doctors and nurses yet. The reason may be human intuition and judgement. Every patient is different, even the ones with the same conditions. As such, context is everything and must be analysed by the nurse always. Regardless of an AI response.

Happy ChatGPTying