AI Resilience Report forLicensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

Right now, AI in nursing is mostly being used to augment nurses rather than replace them — and LPN/LVN bedside tasks are among the hardest to automate because they involve physical care, observation, and human reassurance. The biggest real-world rollouts target paperwork, not patient hands-on work. For example, Abridge has expanded its ambient AI documentation tool to more than 250 health systems, including Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Emory ^[1], where it listens to nurse–patient conversations and drafts notes so nurses can spend more time with patients.

A McKinsey survey of more than 500 U.S. nurses found that nearly 65% are using more AI tools than they were a year ago, though only about 1 in 10 are "superusers" ^[1]. Other tools assist with vital-sign monitoring, fall detection, and clinical alerts, but a Scientific American investigation noted that when AI alerts misfire or can't explain themselves, nurses still carry the risk ^[2], so humans remain firmly in the loop.

Adoption is happening — but slowly and unevenly. On the speed-up side, the U.S. faces a real nursing shortage; BLS projects about 54,400 LPN/LVN openings each year through 2034 ^[3], giving hospitals strong reasons to use AI to ease workloads. On the slow-down side, trust and training gaps are huge: a Nurse.org 2026 survey found only 22% of nurses trust AI for patient care, and 60% with AI exposure say their employer hasn't provided adequate training ^[4].

The American Nurses Association's April 2026 Think Tank warned about overreliance on AI, unclear accountability, and algorithmic bias, calling for nurse-led guardrails ^[5]. Education is catching up too: the National League for Nursing's 2025 vision statement urges national standards for AI literacy so nurses can safely apply AI in clinical decision-making, patient monitoring, and workflow optimization ^[6]-in-nursing-education). The bottom line for young people: empathy, observation, and hands-on care — the heart of LPN/LVN work — are still deeply human skills, and AI is more likely to be your assistant than your replacement.