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Senate hearing: bill would bar AI tools from using the title “nurse” to prevent consumer confusion
Summary
House Bill 2748 would protect the title “nurse” by statute so that only licensed human professionals may use it; sponsors said the bill does not ban AI in healthcare but seeks to prevent AI products from being marketed as nurses. The American Nurses Association president urged the committee to protect patient safety and clarity.
The Senate Committee on Healthcare on April 17 heard testimony on House Bill 2748, a proposal to protect the title “nurse” by statute so that non‑human entities such as artificial intelligence programs may not represent themselves as nurses.
Representative Travis Nelson, the House sponsor, told the committee the measure is intended to preserve the professional meaning of the title and ensure patients are not misled about whether a human licensed professional is providing care. “It ensures that only human licensed professionals can be called nurses,” Nelson said.
Dr. Jennifer Mensah Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, testified in support and said the bill is about public protection and transparency. She described companies marketing “AI nurse” products that could be mistaken by patients for licensed clinicians and said AI should be framed as a decision‑support tool rather than a replacement for clinicians.
Dr. Jennifer Mensah Kennedy said: “Most tech companies don't employ nurses. They don't understand nursing, and they don't understand the technology they're putting out to replace nurses...This is really about patient safety and protecting the nurse license for those people in Oregon.”
Committee members asked how the bill would apply to AI chatbots and websites that provide health information. Witnesses and the sponsor clarified that an AI tool could be called an “AI health assistant,” “AI care partner” or similar, but could not represent itself as a nurse under the proposed language. The bill does not ban use of AI in healthcare, the sponsor said, and does not restrict software development; it is focused on title protection and consumer clarity.
The committee received public testimony and closed the hearing on HB 2748; no committee vote was recorded in the transcript.
