Can Nursing Students Benefit from Using Artificial Intelligence?

A series of surprising developments including the release of generative chatbots like ChatGPT has rapidly increased awareness of the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI), sending shock waves through the research, academic, and nursing education community. As a nurse educator, I initially became interested in the power of AI (in all its forms) to speed the research process and improve investigator workflows. Over time, it became evident that nursing students might benefit from AI in their study methods and when acquiring nursing knowledge to support their academic success.

Photo by John Schnobrich/Unsplash

To better understand this, it is helpful to consider the three fundamental stages in which nursing students acquire knowledge and explore how AI can play a pivotal role in each stage. This blog post will include an overview of AI-powered tools with example prompts to guide students’ academic efforts.

Preparation–Cognitive Stage

In this stage, nursing students are mastering knowledge foundational to nursing practice, including remembering and retaining facts and essential concepts. Students find themselves in this stage when they are learning new content. Open-access large language models (LLMs) in the form of chatbots can support students in this stage by providing concise summaries of pathophysiology, pharmacology, and disease management. AI can also […]

2024-01-25T10:18:12-05:00November 15th, 2023|artificial intelligence (AI), Nursing, Technology|1 Comment
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Recognizing Delirium in Hospitalized Children

A hospital can be a scary place for any of us, but the experience is likely to be especially upsetting for children. An unfamiliar environment, possibly painful procedures, immobility, food that’s not from home (or no food), and disturbed sleep are hard on most people. A child’s particularly vivid imagination may exacerbate an already-frightening experience. It’s not surprising that delirium can occur in hospitalized children.

Characteristics of pediatric delirium.

Delirium in children has not been explored to the extent that it has been in adults, but research suggests its manifestations in either group can include five characteristics: agitation, disorientation, hallucinations, inattention, and sleep–wake cycle disturbances. Some evidence also suggests that children with delirium may have a more labile affect than adults, and more severe perceptual disturbances. […]

2018-04-25T10:05:56-04:00April 25th, 2018|Nursing, pediatrics|0 Comments
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Delirium at the Hands of Nurses

by Augustin Ruiz, via Flickr by Augustin Ruiz, via Flickr

Amanda Anderson, BSN, RN, CCRN, works as a nurse in New York City and is pursuing a master’s in administration from Hunter-Bellevue Scahool of Nursing at Hunter College. Her last post for this blog was “A Hurricane Sandy Bed Bath.”

Leo is young but I’ve cared for him in the ICU many times. It’s late, but he’s awake, talking, in a voice like Kermit the Frog’s. My eyes traverse the path between his, the patch of hair beneath his moving lips, and the newly healed trach site on his neck. He is too long for the bed frame that supports him—we’ve taken off the footboard, and his big feet stick out from the white blanket over his legs.

Tonight, Leo is stable, but this hasn’t always been the case; I’ve known him since the beginning, months and months ago. A long and nasty alcohol addiction led to a bad case of pancreatitis and multiple interventions to save his life. The saving is what I’m most familiar with—the sedated, unstable, intubated, tenuous Leo, not this chatty, relaxed, stable Leo.

Leo is my only patient tonight, a rarity in a busy urban hospital. The unit is empty and slow, not much care to give, nothing requiring immediate attention. So, I sit with him and talk […]

2016-11-21T13:06:35-05:00September 11th, 2013|nursing perspective, Patients|2 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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