Necessity is the mother of invention, so the proverb goes. Inventiveness is probably encoded in the human genome and has allowed our survival. Creating something to solve a specific problem or to fill a need is likely what drove our ancestors to fashion the first wheel or to carve out canoes.
In addition to saving metabolic energy, I imagine the savvy early human inventors and tinkerers also were motivated by saving time. Historians assert that the great leap in human progress came not only with invention itself, but with technology’s (think modern agriculture) unintended gift: free time. Once no longer preoccupied with hunting and gathering, humans had the bandwidth to imagine, innovate, and organize, laying the groundwork for cities, governments, and written language. Since the industrial revolution, inventions have not only shortened the time we spent on certain activities such as travelling (John Adams needed 2 weeks by horseback to journey from Boston to Philadelphia in 1776) but also have significantly lengthened life expectancy. In other words, we’re living longer and we have more free time. Or so we think.
One of the often-touted virtues of artificial intelligence is its potential to relieve staff from the Sisyphean burdens of documentation and administrative tasks, freeing up time for providers to “spend more time” with their patients. The idea is appealing: With AI streamlining “charting” and paperwork, clinicians will be liberated to spend more time with patients, listening, comforting, connecting. But if you’ve ever spent time at a hospital bedside, you know the reality is rarely that simple.
As a bedside nurse in the early 1990s, I remember my manager saying something that’s stuck with me, “If you’re idling, there’s probably something you’re forgetting to do.” That sentiment remains evergreen in nursing. The work is relentless. Even if a task gets automated, the nurse’s attention is immediately redirected elsewhere. “Free time” doesn’t float—it gets absorbed. It gets devoured.
“What can I do for you? I have the time.”
Nearly 2 decades ago, a study identified nine commonly missed nursing care activities: ambulation, turning, feeding, education, discharge planning, emotional support, hygiene, intake and output documentation, and patient surveillance. I’d add a tenth: reading the notes of other providers, which too often go ignored. When I asked ChatGPT what nurses should do with the time they saved from documentation and administrative tasks, its main suggestion intersects with the tasks missed. AI suggested using the time to deepen patient engagement—spending more time at the bedside or in conversation to build trust, answering questions, educating patients, and conducting more thorough assessments (especially psychosocial). But suggestion isn’t implementation.
When hourly rounding was introduced, it came with scripts designed to prompt more meaningful interactions: “What can I do for you? I have the time.” It was well-intentioned, but in many units, it felt contrived or performative. Today, hourly rounding has become something of a footnote in the history of evidence-based practice, not a standard. And yet, some nurses consistently find time. Not because they were told to or AI cleared a task from their list, but because they saw the value in presence. You can read about them in the testimonials shared on the DAISY Foundation’s website and learn about nurses who embody finding time and making meaning of the time spent with the patient.
Why are some nurses good at finding time?
Consider the practice of hand hygiene. We know sanitizing our hands prevents the spread of infection, some providers still don’t do it or can’t seem to do it right. This is very likely, among other reasons, due to a lack of commitment to do the right thing. And this is probably true in any job. To do the things we ought to do when we save time doesn’t require much. But it requires imagination. I’ve seen a nurse hold a patient’s hand while titrating vasopressors. Another time, I witnessed a nurse soothingly apply lotion to the patient’s face after a shave. My favorite: a nurse and a patient singing together a refrain from a Stevie Wonder hit. These are moments of found time. They didn’t take long but they lingered in the patient’s memory.
The reality of bedside nursing is that any anticipated free time will be snatched up even before the nurse can get hold of it. Something always needs to be done. It’s tempting to think that improving care means creating time. But time is only meaningful if it’s used well. If AI saves us time, we must guard that time from being swallowed by distractions, especially the ones that live in our own pockets. I say this not from sanctimony but from genuine aspiration. Perhaps, instead of hourly rounding, we can hourly put down our phones for several minutes. Look up. Visit our patients and truly listen.
Because doing the right thing—even the small right thing—has a way of compounding. It makes us better at our job. It may even make us better at life. Mark Twain said it best: “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” So, if you find yourself with saved time, ask yourself, “What will I do with it?” And if you’re not sure, perhaps start with this: Just be there. That, sometimes, is everything.
Fidelindo Lim, DNP, CCRN, FAAN is a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University Meyers College of Nursing.
