Nurses coordinate care across fragmented systems, which is exactly the expertise health systems need as artificial intelligence reshapes clinical practice.
Jill Seys, D.N.P., M.B.A., RN, EBP-C, NEA-BC
Senior Director, Analytics and Advisory Services, HIMSS
Nurses have always been the connective tissue of healthcare. In acute and ambulatory settings alike, nurses assess patients, administer treatments, and facilitate care delivery to move patients safely through an often-fragmented system. Those same skills and expertise in coordinating care are exactly what health systems need to guide artificial intelligence (AI) development, and they are also exactly the skills and instincts too often missing when these tools are built by non-nurses. A 2025 systematic review in JMIR Nursing concluded that nurses “should be at the forefront” of AI and empowered throughout its implementation. Nurses should not be handed finished tools to simply operate.
The choice before us is clear: Nurses can either design the workflows that affect nursing practice, or those workflows will be designed for us without our input. Our contribution is essential.
Educate: Build fluency at every level
AI literacy cannot be reserved only for informaticists. Every role in nursing, including students, bedside clinicians, unit managers, and executives, requires foundational fluency in AI. A 2025 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Medicine found generally positive attitudes toward AI among nurses but “highly variable” skill implementation, and it called for standardized education and faculty development. Trust grows as knowledge grows.
Innovate: Give time back to patients
The value is already tangible. Among early adopters of ambient documentation for nursing, AI is easing the documentation burden that pulls us away from patients. A Journal of Advanced Nursing position paper describes multimodal models that update documentation in real time to reduce manual entry and burnout.
Validate: Governance earns the trust
Innovation without governance erodes trust, and nurses have little tolerance for tools that don’t work. Success depends on validation, monitoring, and transparency to guard against bias and error, according to the 2025 JMIR Nursing systematic review. Implementing AI is not a traditional technology implementation. It requires a mindset shift in which all users contribute to validation, own their role in human oversight of the product, and participate in governance by providing feedback when a tool functions outside planned guardrails.
Transform: Leaders bring nurses forward
Leadership is the critical success factor. A 2025 scoping review in JMIR Nursing found that nurse leaders are uniquely positioned to shape AI development and ensure ethical, safe, high-quality care. Leader readiness directly enables successful integration.
Technology alone will not transform our practice or our profession. Transformation requires reimagined workflows, earned trust, and leaders who bring nurses to the table to participate and build the future. The future of care is being written now, and nursing has a vital role in the success of redesigning how that care is delivered.
