RCN Congress 2025 iv - AI & quality improvement

Discussion: Artificial intelligence in nurse education &

Discussion: The role of nursing staff in quality improvement

We'll cover two agenda items in this post. First, resistance is futile in the apparent rise and ubiquity of artificial intelligence.

Discussion: Artificial intelligence in nurse education

Here is, another thing 'we need to get right'. Without checking, I'm sure I posted/tweeted about 'essay factories'. Now Generative AI has put the automated generation of academic essays on steroids. If a student is not motivated to learn, enthusiastic about their seemingly chosen course of study and the professional reward to be earned, then we are in trouble. Public and patient safety are at risk. AI, is however is here to stay - change and help us prosper(?). AI and GenAI are tools, just another step forward, an advance on finger tips, palms, stick, chalk, pencil, and pen. The brief for the discussion includes, with specific points emboldened:

'... Additionally, AI-driven simulations and virtual reality scenarios can provide hands-on experience in a controlled environment, enabling students to practice and refine their skills with greater confidence. 

Creating an engaging and supportive learning environment is key to helping nursing students embrace AI. HEIs can introduce AI concepts early in the curriculum and provide ongoing training and resources. Encouraging collaboration and open discussions about the benefits and challenges of AI can further enhance students' confidence in using these tools.

By taking these steps, nursing education can seamlessly integrate AI, ensuring future nurses are equipped to excel in an evolving health care landscape.

To effectively integrate AI into nursing education, RCN Wales, for example, advocates for higher education institutions (HEIs) to equip students with the skills to continually enhance their digital and biotechnological literacy, ensuring they meet their programme outcomes.

HEIs can incorporate regular assessments and feedback mechanisms to monitor a student’s progress and determine where AI tools add the most value.' . . .

Computer-aided learning has matured greatly since the 1980s and 1990s. AI and GenAI mark the seeming leap in progress over the past two years, with governments, professional bodies and society having to adjust and quickly. We need to watch how simulation, and virtual reality and other approaches to learning are applied, to assure the quality, safety and learning experience provided to students. There appears to be a risk in mental health nursing curricula being 'diminished'. Interpersonal skills are critical in psychiatric and psychological care. This might afford the advocates of technically-laden solutions to side-step the nuances of face-to-face human interaction. Amid the pursuit of what is mechanistic, let us value the humanistic also.

The biotechnical, is one a several literacies to keep sight of. AI, is of course bound up in bio-political concerns, that are still emerging. The 'health care landscape' is plural too: consider the patient's home, a ward, out-patient department, e-consultation, e-learning intervention, brief psychotherapy, occupational health, carceral care, and field hospital, veterans, migrant - refugee health and the homeless.

There's more, and references and a reading list are also provided on the above link.

Discussion: The role of nursing staff in quality improvement

'Quality improvement is about making a difference to patients by improving safety, effectiveness, and experience of care.

All nursing staff should have the abilities and support to become involved in addressing health care pressures, utilising their expertise in the profession as leaders, not only in care delivery, but also within the system. However, the work of nursing staff to deliver quality improvement is often limited to opportunities that are dependent on staffing, seniority and availability. 

Nurses’ willingness to attend training is often superseded by patient demand making attendance impossible. Other health care colleagues undertake work on research and service improvement alongside their role and as a requirement for their revalidation, this is not the case for nursing staff who don’t get these opportunities.

Consider the benefits of the nursing workforce undertaking quality improvement, conducting local research, reorganising working environments, translating or updating patient materials, trialling novel approaches to care or addressing health inequalities. These skills would not only improve the quality of care we provide but also prepare the nurse to influence and change systems throughout their career.

This is relevant UK-wide. Scotland's 2030 vision for nurses, states an intention to equip nurses with quality improvement tools and support, but only nurses in non-hands-on roles. NHS Wales offers quality improvement training through e-learning  via the ESR to health care professionals, in Wales. In Northern Ireland training is available, but only for Band 7 and above.'

What is the role of all nurses to get involved in quality improvement?'

There is a point with IT security that if it was 100% assured with all the prospective log-ins of an average user, would we ever get any 'real' work done? Does the same apply to research? I have heard this as an argument in practice; and a response to a drive for quality improvement too. Data takes time to collect, especially to answer new questions. Such arguments were also fielded when models of nursing were spoke of with eye-rolls and sighs of experience. Quality improvement is a fight, opportunities and resources can be found, especially if a culture of research is nurtured and sustained. What questions does a ward, unit, team have currently? What queries might new starters, newly qualified, students, and placement candidates provoke? If my reference to fighting seems strong; the fight is for time. The raw truth is in the NHS that quality improvement, research and supervision (in its various forms) are in competition, in the absence of coherent integration.

In bold above, the discussion includes:

'trialling novel approaches to care or addressing health inequalities'.

I wonder what that springs to mind? More seriously, we need be aware of what happens to 'quality'; in whatever educational form it is encountered and experienced. 

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

interpersonal skills informal / formal education QUALITY lifelong learning	biotechnical landscape quality improvement - clinical supervision?
inequity social preparedness for AI/GenAI	inequality management supervision?