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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nursing Education

Ashley Barber

WellStar School of Nursing, Kennesaw State University

NURS 7712: Nurse Educator Role

Dr. Anne White

April 19, 2024

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nursing Education

The world of technology is consistently changing and growing, especially within the

healthcare sector, which impacts student healthcare education. The most recent use of technology

involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which is, in broad terms, a type of simulation of

human intelligence by a computer system or machine (Tai, 2020; Xu et al., 2021). The

overarching goal of AI includes the ability to mimic human behaviors in the sense of perception,

creating reason as well as ideas, and understanding information (Tai, 2020; Xu et al., 2021).

In recent years, AI has grown exponentially in the realm of healthcare in that it can be

utilized to transform healthcare practices, contribute to education, and promote innovative ideas

regarding research (Bajwa et al., 2021; Bohr & Memarzadeh, 2020). In regard to specifically

nursing education, nurse educators have been tasked in the wake of ever-increasing nursing

shortages to create “practice-ready” nurses as noted by the American Association of Colleges of

Nursing’s (AACN) new guidelines promoting competency-based education within nursing

education curriculum (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021). It has always been a

priority that nursing students are up to date on current healthcare practices and use of technology

within differing settings to guide current needs within the healthcare system and futuristic

demands within patient care, but even more so now with the new curriculum initiatives and

advancements in patient care and technology (Bohr & Memarzadeh, 2020). With advancing

technology and new curriculum initiatives, the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of

AI on future nurses and nursing education and how its current trends affect the nurse in the nurse

educator role in developing curriculum to meet the new AACN guidelines.

Background
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The beginning of AI started in 1956 where profound researchers coined the term

“artificial intelligence” with AI in the healthcare setting beginning in 1971; however, its usage

fluctuating in the timespan following invention with major increases in usage in recent years

(Kaul et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2021). With an increase in usage of AI in the healthcare setting

along with new AACN guidelines to promote “practice-ready” nurses, nursing education needs

to evolve to maintain understanding of advances in AI use, how to best utilize AI within courses,

and what this means for futuristic patient care needs to best educate nursing students to promote

competency-based education (De Gagne, 2023). AI in nursing education presents with some

benefits; however, it also presents with some challenges as well that affect nursing education and

the nurse educator role in a multifaceted way.

There are varying degrees of benefits and challenges to AI use in nursing education. One

large benefit of AI in nursing education consists of the use of Chat Generative Pre-Trained

Transformer (ChatGPT), which can create simulation scenarios, unfolding case studies,

discussion questions, role play, and many more interactive learning experiences while essentially

saving nurse educators time (De Gagne, 2023). By supplying differing resource ideas, nurse

educators are able to focus more so on complex teaching tasks (De Gagne, 2023). Some

challenges with AI-powered tools within nursing education consist of student privacy, resistance

to adoption of AI-powered tools among educators, limitations with AI, and technological cost of

implementing organization-wide technology initiatives in AI (De Gagne, 2023). It is essential

that nurse educators use AI as a supplement, and do not solely depend on AI-powered tools since

AI presents with slight limitations in information processing and presentation (De Gagne, 2023).

While AI is generally an older topic, it is a newer topic in the sector of nursing education,

which impacts how a nurse educator teaches future generations of nurses. Nurse educators need
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to learn how to best adapt to emerging AI technologies, and how to best prepare nursing students

in AI usage since AI is a powerful tool in patient care and education and may even contribute to

advancing competency-based nursing education curriculum. The question then becomes, “How

do nurse educators effectively utilize AI technology to promote competency-based education

while also fostering a sense of critical thinking, decision making, and promotion of patient

quality of care among their nursing students?”

Supporting Literature Review

When searching the literature using Kennesaw State University’s library database “Super

Search” for “Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Education,” with inclusion criteria consisting of

publication date in last three years, full text, available in library collection, peer reviewed,

academic journals, and in English language, a total of 16,936 articles resulted within the search

engine. After further refinement to also include “Curriculum” with same inclusion criteria, a total

of 3,790 articles resulted within the search engine. After review of the resulted articles, a total of

6 articles were selected for the literature review to review current solutions and best practice

methods.

Current Solutions & Best Practice Methods

One solution and best practice method from literature is that nurse educators need to be

trained on usage of AI technology within the classroom setting as well as given proper

institutionalized guidelines for AI usage within classroom settings (Schneidereith & Thibault,

2023). Three articles highlight that nurse educators must first and foremost recognize the

capabilities and limitations of AI technologies and should receive proper training and support

(De Gagne, 2023; Schneidereith & Thibault, 2023; Walter, 2024). Within this training, guidance

on how exactly to incorporate AI technologies within current teaching content as well as

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recognition for need to review for accuracy is utmost importance (De Gagne, 2023;

Schneidereith & Thibault, 2023; Walter, 2024). Training should also include awareness and

detection of AI abuse by students such as using AI for take-home examination help without

monitoring, creation of written assignments such as papers, presentations, and discussion

question responses (De Gagne, 2023; Schneidereith & Thibault, 2023; Walter, 2024).

A second solution and best practice method from literature is that AI technology can be

utilized to create innovative teaching strategies for nurse educators to use, which can be

beneficial when incorporating new competency-based teaching strategies to promote “practice

ready” nurses. Two articles highlighted the importance of AI technology in that it can ultimately

heighten simulation experiences for students since it is able to offer scenarios that are more

realistic and considerate of differing learning style needs, which can be helpful when trying to

bridge the gap related to classroom and clinical experiences (Tam et al., 2023; Topaz et al.,

2024). The articles also highlight how AI can improve the development of critical thinking and

clinical judgement skills by creating learning opportunities where application of clinical

judgment analysis and supplication of interventions is interwoven within nursing education by

use of AI generated unfolding case studies, discussion questions, role-play scenarios, clinical

judgment tools, and even problem-based learning where AI-Chatbots can be used to simulate

encounters with patients (Tam et al., 2023; Topaz et al., 2024).

A third solution and best practice method from literature looks the importance of

preparing nursing students with the current rise in technology usage within the healthcare setting

(Glauberman et al., 2023). One article highlighted that AI is currently being used in clinical

practice, which can allow for nurses to increase quality, safety, and timely patient care by use of

AI-generated futuristic predictions and suggestions for clinical care improvement regarding
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patient care (Glauberman et al., 2023). AI tools that nurses utilize include generation of nursing

diagnoses, patient risk predictions, decision trees to prevent hospital acquired infections, and etc.

(Glauberman et al., 2023). By allowing students to engage in AI technology activities such as

teaching students how to create generative AI prompts for patient education, how to use AI for

generation and use of clinical tools, and how to decipher accuracy and relevancy of information

provided by AI technology, students can then begin being prepared for AI-enhanced healthcare

workplaces (Glauberman et al., 2023).

Summary of Solutions

Fears surrounding incorporation of AI technology within nursing education by educators

need to be addressed first (De Gagne, 2023). After understanding AI technology functionality,

nurse educators are then able to ensure the learning tools and/or content they are designing

overall increases student clinical judgement and learning outcomes with a focus on the art of

patient care through potential created real-life scenarios (De Gagne, 2023; Schneidereith &

Thibault, 2023; Walter, 2024). Nurse educators can then use these AI technological tools to help

innovate creative teaching strategies to target differing learning styles and foster critical thinking

and decision-making skills among nursing students (Tam et al., 2023; Topaz et al., 2024). After

utilizing AI technologies in the delivery of nursing healthcare content and promoting critical

thinking and decision-making strategies, it then becomes a priority to educate nursing students

on AI usage within healthcare delivery to ensure safe and quality patient care is being given to

all patients (Glauberman et al., 2023).

Implications for the Nurse Educator

Nurse educators need to continually challenge themselves to learn about AI usage within

the classroom setting and outside the classroom setting to ensure that students are being provided
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with the most current and beneficial education (De Gagne, 2023; Schneidereith & Thibault,

2023; Walter, 2024). With AACN’s new competency-based education guidelines, nurse

educators are charged with innovation to its highest form to ensure that nursing students are

prepared to enter the work force as “practice-ready” nurses (American Association of Colleges

of Nursing, 2021). With the usage of AI in course content and curriculum, nurse educators can

help bridge the education gap between classroom and clinical setting by use of innovative

teaching methods that promote high-level critical thinking and application to real-life scenarios

(Tam et al., 2023; Topaz et al., 2024). Nurse educators also need to consider AI as an

opportunity to reevaluate and revisit the rewriting of policies and differing practices regarding

institutional education as well (Schneidereith & Thibault, 2023). Lastly, promoting transparency

of AI usage among nursing students by either creating citations for noted use or even explaining

how and why AI was used, how AI’s generated response was critically evaluated, and

highlighting where exactly in written assignments AI can be noted may need to be considered as

an implicated teaching point for nursing students (Walter, 2024).

Further Need for Research

Since AI usage is newer to the world of education, especially nursing education, there is

further need for research in defining how to best utilize AI within the classroom setting. Since AI

is so vast in ability, more guidance on how to “fine-tune” this technology could be beneficial to

nurse educators. More research is needed in defining how to best interpret AI usage and/or abuse

within nursing student assignments, especially since the misusage of AI can lead to academic

integrity concerns. Lastly, futuristic outcomes on AI usage within the classroom setting to

determine if it is in fact an effective way to teach competency-based nursing strategies to

promote practice-ready nurses needs to be reviewed.

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Conclusion

Nursing education is consistently evolving along with the nursing role and patient care

initiatives. With the newer competency-based essentials to guide teaching to create “practice-

ready” nurses, AI technology can be a great resource for innovation in applying classroom to the

clinical setting. AI technology, while sometimes frightening with its rapid growth, has the chance

to impact nursing, nursing education, and healthcare as a whole.

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References

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