By Tamara Macieira and Hwayoung Cho
Nurses are widely known for their caring contributions, but what is the economic value of nursing? What is their role in the growing data economy that fuels AI advancements?
These were among the topics explored at the 2025 Rita Kobb Nursing and Health Informatics National Symposium held on Feb. 28 by the University of Florida College of Nursing. The symposium brought together nurses, informaticists and health care leaders to explore the critical role of nursing at the intersection between data science, implementation science and clinical practice.
In one of the symposium’s two keynote presentations, Dr. Olga Yakusheva advocated value-informed nursing practices and reimbursement models and challenged us to rethink the future of nursing beyond conventional boundaries.
“Nursing is not a costly labor input; it is a value-generating human capital asset,” Yakusheva said. “To assure a thriving nursing workforce in the future, quantification of nursing’s value is needed.”
She further called on attendees to adopt value-informed care as a dominant nursing practice and leadership model and contribute to the growth of, “the diversity of talent, expertise and unique human qualities embedded in individual nurses.”
“Investments in nursing human capital are the only way of achieving high-quality, affordable, and sustainable health care,” she said.
Dr. Mollie Cummins delivered the other keynote and spoke on the evolution of artificial intelligence in nursing informatics, reaffirming that now is the time for innovation, particularly in the areas of data availability, decentralization (e.g., telehealth) of health, leveraging generative AI in ontologies, incorporating patient preferences and values and ensuring nursing perspectives and needs are represented in AI advancements. As Cummins shared, we are currently faced with critical questions related to the value of nursing in AI, and how AI will impact nursing.
She encouraged the nursing profession to make collective efforts to answer those questions and solidify their crucial place in the algorithms and data economy of the future.
Both keynotes resonated with the symposium attendees, sparking meaningful discussions among attendees and motivating action to showcase the measurable impact of nursing on health care outcomes and policy and strengthen the role of nurses as vital human capital within the rising data and algorithmic economies. The presentations and conversations at the symposium serve as testaments to the power of collaboration and knowledge-sharing in quantifying nursing’s value for the future of the profession.
Nurses face significant challenges in today’s complex health care landscape, including workforce shortages, evolving regulatory demands and the pressures of an increasingly digital and data-driven environment. To navigate these challenges, it is imperative that nurses proactively communicate and leverage their economic value. As the largest contributors of data to our health care system, key stakeholders in the clinical application of AI and informatics and among the primary advocates for patient care, nurses hold the key to shaping the future of health care.
We will continue our work to leverage informatics to highlight nurses’ tangible and measurable impact on patient outcomes and cost-effective care. Help us turn inspiration into impact by sharing your ideas on how we can collectively make the value of nursing visible and undeniable!