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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.

1,448,910 people do this job in the US. $42,260 a year.

now
15%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 15%
  • 0%
  • 85%
0%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
Already

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 15% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 10%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 15%.

0%5%10%15%20%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 2% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 2% within reacho1, December 2024: 5% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 10% within reacho3, April 2025: 14% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 14% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 15% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 15% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 15% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 15% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 15% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 15% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

The tasks

Sorted by . 33 tasks from .

TaskKind
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.Done several times a day by most who do it. 11%21 min8 min to 42 minStays with people
Undress, wash, and dress patients who are unable to do so for themselves.Done daily by most who do it. 9%25 min13 min to 50 minStays with people
Feed patients or assist patients to eat or drink.Done several times a day by most who do it. 9%21 min8 min to 38 minStays with people
Wash, groom, shave, or drape patients to prepare them for surgery, treatment, or examination.Done daily by most who do it. 5%17 min8 min to 38 minStays with people
Turn or reposition bedridden patients.Done several times a day by most who do it. 4%8 min4 min to 17 minStays with people
Clean and sanitize patient rooms, bathrooms, examination rooms, or other patient areas.Done daily by most who do it. 4%17 min8 min to 38 minStays with people
Transport patients to treatment units, testing units, operating rooms, or other areas, using wheelchairs, stretchers, or moveable beds.Done daily by most who do it. 4%17 min8 min to 33 minStays with people
Stock or issue medical supplies, such as dressing packs or treatment trays.Done daily by most who do it.4%25 min13 min to 50 minStays with people
Lift or assist others to lift patients to move them on or off beds, examination tables, surgical tables, or stretchers.Done daily by most who do it. 4%10 min4 min to 21 minStays with people
Communicate with patients to ascertain feelings or need for assistance or social and emotional support.Done daily by most who do it. 4%8 min4 min to 25 min100%Half by now
Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients' needs.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 3%4 min2 min to 13 min100%Half by now
Assist nurses or physicians in the operation of medical equipment or provision of patient care.Done daily by most who do it. 3%13 min4 min to 25 minStays with people

Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.

Jobs that share skills with this one

From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.