AI exposure: Nursing Assistants
Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. May include medication administration and other health-related tasks. Includes nursing care attendants, nursing aides, and nursing attendants.
Reading this score
computedAt 11.9% of weighted task load, Nursing Assistants sits at the 18th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 76.8% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 33 tasks it averages 2.33 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients'..., at 70.0%. The least is Transport specimens, laboratory items, or pharmacy items, ensuring proper documentation and..., at 0.0%. A gap of 70.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare support occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 19 roles in the group is 11.5%, and only 9 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 33 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 5 assisted and 23 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.86 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.33 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.03 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.61 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.17 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.71 | 0-3 |
Task by task
33 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients' needs. | 70.0% | 17.5% | 12.5% | 4.69 | exposed |
| Provide information, such as directions, visiting hours, or patient status information to visitors or callers. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.39 | exposed |
| Measure and record food and liquid intake or urinary and fecal output, reporting changes to medical or nursing staff. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.58 | exposed |
| Record vital signs, such as temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration rate, as directed by medical or nursing staff. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.38 | exposed |
| Record height or weight of patients. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Explain medical instructions to patients or family members. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 3.79 | assisted |
| Review patients' dietary restrictions, food allergies, and preferences to ensure patient receives appropriate diet. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.45 | assisted |
| Communicate with patients to ascertain feelings or need for assistance or social and emotional support. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.39 | assisted |
| Gather information from caregivers, nurses, or physicians about patient condition, treatment plans, or appropriate activities. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.37 | assisted |
| Document or otherwise report observations of patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms to nurses. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.52 | assisted |
| Observe or examine patients to detect symptoms that may require medical attention, such as bruises, open wounds, or blood in urine. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Turn or reposition bedridden patients. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.76 | untouched |
| Feed patients or assist patients to eat or drink. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.64 | untouched |
| Provide physical support to assist patients to perform daily living activities, such as getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, standing, walking, or exercising. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Remind patients to take medications or nutritional supplements. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Undress, wash, and dress patients who are unable to do so for themselves. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Lift or assist others to lift patients to move them on or off beds, examination tables, surgical tables, or stretchers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Supply, collect, or empty bedpans. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Wash, groom, shave, or drape patients to prepare them for surgery, treatment, or examination. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Prepare or serve food trays. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Change bed linens or make beds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.25 | untouched |
| Exercise patients who are comatose, paralyzed, or have restricted mobility. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Restock patient rooms with personal hygiene items, such as towels, washcloths, soap, or toilet paper. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Clean and sanitize patient rooms, bathrooms, examination rooms, or other patient areas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Assist nurses or physicians in the operation of medical equipment or provision of patient care. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Transport patients to treatment units, testing units, operating rooms, or other areas, using wheelchairs, stretchers, or moveable beds. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Collect specimens, such as urine, feces, or sputum. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Position or hold patients in position for surgical preparation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.60 | untouched |
| Set up treating or testing equipment, such as oxygen tents, portable radiograph (x-ray) equipment, or overhead irrigation bottles, as directed by a physician or nurse. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Administer medications or treatments, such as catheterizations, suppositories, irrigations, enemas, massages, or douches, as directed by a physician or nurse. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Apply clean dressings, slings, stockings, or support bandages, under direction of nurse or physician. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Stock or issue medical supplies, such as dressing packs or treatment trays. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Transport specimens, laboratory items, or pharmacy items, ensuring proper documentation and delivery to authorized personnel. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.64 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.