By Lisiane Pruinelli and Molly K. McCarthy
Over the past few months, I’ve engaged in conversations about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and nursing at the NAILCollab meeting in Switzerland, the AI in Nursing workshop at UPenn, and the AI & Nursing Think-Tank hosted by American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). These discussions brought together leading experts from academia, nursing and technology to explore the future of AI in health care.
The insights were valuable — highlighting AI’s potential, the ethical considerations, and the importance of data-driven nursing. But as I reflected on these conversations, one thought stood out:
How do we move from ideas to action?
Academia has done a phenomenal job identifying the challenges and researching AI’s potential impact on nursing. These discussions are essential, but now is the time to take the next step — turning research into real-world solutions that directly support nurses at the bedside.
This is the driving force behind this blog — one that I am thrilled to be co-authoring with Molly McCarthy, MBA, BSN, RN-NI, a seasoned executive using artificial intelligence and technology to improve health care.
McCarthy shares my belief that academia, industry and health technology startups must collaborate side-by-side to ensure AI solutions are practical, scalable and designed with nursing at the center.
The Nursing Profession at a Crossroads
The challenges nurses face today are not theoretical. They are urgent and demand immediate action:
- Administrative burden takes nurses away from direct patient care.
- Workforce shortages and burnout continue to rise, leaving fewer nurses at the bedside.
- Data and information overload from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and clinical systems create complexity instead of clarity.
Research is essential in defining these problems and exploring how AI might help. But research is not enough — we need a more structured pathway to move solutions from concept to implementation.
Stronger Partnerships: A Collaborative Path Forward
AI innovation moves quickly — often faster than traditional academic models can bring research into real-world practice. This is not a gap—it is an opportunity for deeper collaboration.
By fostering stronger partnerships between academia, industry and health technology startups, we can:
- Ensure AI solutions are co-designed and developed with nurses from the start, not retrofitted later.
- Scale promising research-backed innovations into tools that directly impact nursing practice and patient care.
- Address ethical, safety and usability concerns early in development, leveraging academic and subject matter expertise to guide responsible AI adoption.
Many promising AI-driven solutions already exist, from clinical documentation automation (e.g., drafting responses to patients’ messages like EPIC Augmented Response Technology (Art)), predictive analytics (e.g., predicting Falls like VSTAlert), to virtual nursing models (e.g., nurse-led smart care teams) and staffing optimization tools. The question isn’t just whether AI can support nurses — the question is: how can we, nurses, see ourselves as relevant to every step of the AI solution process and feedback loop?
Shifting the Conversation: From Potential to Action
We are serious about AI transforming nursing, and to start answering that question, we need to shift our mindset:
- Engage actively to lead solution discovery, design and development.
- Build stronger, cross-sector partnerships (i.e., with engineering and business) that drive meaningful change in practice.
- Accelerate real-world implementation and feedback loops.
- Share use cases and outcomes on a national and international platform.
The future of AI in nursing is not something we wait for — it is something we shape together. Now is the time.
Molly and the FloGatorAi team are eager to continue this conversation, and we invite you to share your thoughts. How can we create more structured pathways for academia and industry (including health technology startups) to work together on real-world AI solutions for nursing?
Let’s start the conversation.