Conectar
The aim of this integrative review is to critically appraise and synthesise empirical evidence on the clinical applications, outcomes, and implications of generative artificial intelligence in nursing practice.
Integrative review following Whittemore and Knafl's five-stage framework.
Systematic searches were performed for peer-reviewed articles and book chapters published between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2025. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full texts against predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria focused on generative artificial intelligence tools embedded in nursing clinical workflow (excluding nursing education-only applications). Data were extracted into a standardised matrix and appraised for quality using design-appropriate checklists. Guided by Whittemore and Knafl's integrative review framework, a constant comparative analysis was applied to derive the main themes and subthemes.
CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Embase.
Included literature was a representative mix of single-group quality improvement pilots, mixed-method usability and feasibility studies, randomised controlled trials, qualitative descriptive and phenomenological studies, as well as preliminary and proof-of-concept observational research. Four overarching themes emerged: (1) Workflow Integration and Efficiency, (2) AI-Augmented Clinical Reasoning, (3) Patient-Facing Communication and Education, and (4) Role Boundaries, Ethics and Trust.
Generative artificial intelligence holds promise for enhancing nursing efficiency, supporting clinical decision making, and extending patient communication. However, consistent human validation, ethical boundary setting, and more rigorous, longitudinal outcome and equity evaluations are essential before widespread clinical adoption.
Although generative artificial intelligence could reduce nurses' documentation workload and routine decision-making burden, these gains cannot be assumed. Safe and effective integration will require rigorous nurse training, robust governance, transparent labelling of AI-generated content, and ongoing evaluation of both clinical outcomes and equity impacts. Without these safeguards, generative artificial intelligence risks introducing new errors and undermining patient safety and trust.
PRISMA 2020.
To examine residential aged care staff's experience of death and grief, and their support needs.
A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, using an online cross-sectional survey that included the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief and the Grief Support in Health Care Scale. Followed by semi-structured interviews with direct care workers and managers working in residential aged care homes were conducted.
Over 60% of participants experienced five or more resident deaths in the previous 12 months. Although, different levels of grief were experienced among different roles, the importance of open communication and opportunities for farewells after resident death was highlighted. Participants suggested support and education to normalise grief and promote self-care.
Recognising staff grief following the resident death is important. Providing support and education may help improve staff wellbeing and contribute to the delivery of high-quality care for both residents and their families.
Staff grief after a resident death needs to be recognised, and continuing education and support are required for their wellbeing.
The STROBE and SRQR checklists were applied.
No Patient or Public contribution.
To map the extent of the use of the term ‘planetary health’ in peer-reviewed nursing literature.
Scoping Review.
CINAHL, ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Premium, MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses and Web of Science were searched in January and February 2024 for English and French-language publications. A follow-up search was conducted on 10 June 2024 to determine if additional literature was published.
A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley methodology for scoping reviews. To be included the article had to explicitly use the term ‘planetary health’ and ‘nursing’ or ‘nurses’.
Sixty-eight articles met the criteria for the scoping review and were included in this review, with the majority published between 2017 and 2024. Predominant literature included discussion papers, commentaries and editorials. A lack of original research is apparent. Most of the publications were calls to action for nurses to advance planetary health in nursing education, practice, research and advocacy work.
Literature confirms that planetary health is a recent and an important topic in nursing, and nurses have a well-documented role to play in planetary health, given the numerous calls to action in nursing leadership, education, practice and research. There is a need to publish the essential work nurses are doing in planetary health in various nursing domains.
This scoping review revealed a clear and urgent call to action for nurses to address planetary health. Given this finding, nurses have a responsibility to advocate for a planetary health approach in the profession and take action to contribute to planetary health through education, research, practice and advocacy.
Not applicable, as no patients or public were involved.
To report organisational factors known to positively contribute to nurses' well-being in the workplace.
Integrative literature review.
Peer-reviewed journal articles using various methodological approaches, and theoretical works, published in English with a focus on organisational factors and nurses' well-being were included. Papers reporting on other healthcare professional groups and/or nursing students were excluded. Data were synthesised into an integrative review, with findings organised theoretically, according to the PERMA model (Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment), otherwise known as The Well-being Model.
Relevant papers published between May 2020 and April 2025 were identified using CINAHL and PsycINFO electronic databases. Search date, April 24, 2025.
The review included 18 articles, mostly from Europe and the United States, examining workplace factors that contribute to the health and well-being of nurses. Mapping findings to the PERMA domains showed that organisational support and individual strategies together foster flourishing among nurses.
This review highlights both individual factors (such as self-care, strength use and adaptive coping) and organisational structures (including supportive environments, professional development and recognition) that are essential for nurses' well-being and flourishing. However, effective interventions require systemic change, with leadership and education playing key roles in supporting nurses to flourish in the workplace.
This review addressed the need to go beyond deficit models of nurses' well-being to pinpoint specific organisational factors that can help nurses to flourish. Prioritising nurse well-being is vital for high-quality, safe and sustainable healthcare systems. Investing in environments where nurses can flourish benefits both individuals and the broader healthcare system.
This integrative review was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct or reporting.
To explore clinical nurses’ process of coping during COVID-19 and develop a grounded theory that can be used by leaders to support clinical nurses during a disaster.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked widespread disruption to clinical nurses’ work. It is important to understand clinical nurses’ processes of coping during disasters to support the nursing workforce during events such as global pandemics.
We employed the Corbin and Strauss variant of grounded theory methodology, informed by symbolic interactionism, and applied the EQUATOR guidelines for qualitative research publication (COREQ).
Data collection entailed semi-structured interviews with experienced clinical nurses (n =20) across diverse settings. We analysed data by identifying key points in the nurses’ coping processes inductively building concepts around these points.
The predictor of nurses’ outcomes in this grounded theory was their confidence in their ability to cope during the pandemic. When nurses lacked confidence, they experienced working in the context of acute COVID—a state of chaos and anxiety, with negative consequences for nurses. However, when nurses were confident in their abilities to cope with the pandemic, they experienced working in the context of chronic COVID, a calmer state of acceptance. There were many workplace factors that influenced nurses’ confidence, including adequacy of personal protective equipment, clear information and guidance, supportive leadership, teamwork and adequate staffing.
Understanding clinical nurses’ experience of coping during COVID-19 is essential to maintain the nursing workforce during similar disasters.
Nurse leaders can target areas that support nurses’ confidence, such as adequate PPE and staffing. In turn, increased confidence enables clinical nurses to cope during disasters such as a global pandemic.
To examine what was known about disaster preparedness in residential care and to consider this in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Care homes provide long-term care to vulnerable, frail older people, as well as to young people with profound disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the residential care sector has been seriously affected in many parts of the world and has exposed major flaws and vulnerabilities in infection control and other processes that have resulted in considerable loss of life of residents of these facilities.
Discursive paper informed by a systematic literature. Review was carried out in line with PRISMA reporting guidelines. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO on 2020 [CRD42020211847].
The review identified six papers meeting inclusion criteria across care residential facilities in different countries. Several prevention and mitigation strategies were identified to manage and reduce the spread and severity of viral respiratory infection pandemics. These strategies include isolation, restriction of movement, personal protective and hygienic measures, health education and information sharing, monitoring and coordination, and screening and treatment. Preparedness strategies identified were contingency planning such as reporting/communication, leadership, human resource, insurance, occupational health and resource availability. The prevention/mitigation and preparedness strategies helped to achieve decline in disease severity, reduced prevalence, reduced spread of the disease, improved readiness criteria, resource usefulness and increased intervention acceptability. This paper presents a conceptual framework exploring the interconnectedness of preparedness and prevention/ mitigation strategies and associated outcomes. We discuss areas of concern in the context of workforce employment patterns in the sector. Concerns related to the unintended consequences of strategies placed on aged care facilities, which may worsen mental health outcomes for residents, are discussed.
Persons in residential care settings are at greater risk of infection during a pandemic, and therefore, strict measures to protect their safety are warranted. However, they are also a group who already experience social isolation and so any measures involving restrictions to visiting and social interaction, particularly over the longer term, must be accompanied by strategies to mitigate potential loneliness and mental health sequelae arising from long-term pandemic restrictions.
Though there was evidence of activity in preparedness for disasters within the residential care sector, various contextual factors affecting the sector were clearly not adequately considered or addressed in pre-pandemic disaster planning, particularly in the areas of staff movements between care homes and the length of time that social isolation and restriction measures would need to be in place. Future pandemic planning should consider the nature of the workforce model in the care home sector, and factor in strategies to better support the mobile and highly casualised workforce.
To highlight the need for the development of effective and realistic workforce strategies for critical care nurses, in both a steady state and pandemic.
In acute care settings, there is an inverse relationship between nurse staffing and iatrogenesis, including mortality. Despite this, there remains a lack of consensus on how to determine safe staffing levels. Intensive care units (ICU) provide highly specialised complex healthcare treatments. In developed countries, mortality rates in the ICU setting are high and significantly varied after adjustment for diagnosis. The variability has been attributed to systems, patient and provider issues including the workload of critical care nurses.
Discursive paper.
Nursing workforce is the single most influential mediating variable on ICU patient outcomes. Numerous systematic reviews have been undertaken in an effort to quantify the effect of critical care nurses on mortality and morbidity, invariably leading to the conclusion that the association is similar to that reported in acute care studies. This is a consequence of methodological limitations, inconsistent operational definitions and variability in endpoint measures. We evaluated the impact inadequate measurement has had on capturing relevant critical care data, and we argue for the need to develop effective and realistic ICU workforce measures.
COVID-19 has placed an unprecedented demand on providing health care in the ICU. Mortality associated with ICU admission has been startling during the pandemic. While ICU systems have largely remained static, the context in which care is provided is profoundly dynamic and the role and impact of the critical care nurse needs to be measured accordingly. Often, nurses are passive recipients of unplanned and under-resourced changes to workload, and this has been brought into stark visibility with the current COVID-19 situation. Unless critical care nurses are engaged in systems management, achieving consistently optimal ICU patient outcomes will remain elusive.
Objective measures commonly fail to capture the complexity of the critical care nurses’ role despite evidence to indicate that as workload increases so does risk of patient mortality, job stress and attrition. Critical care nurses must lead system change to develop and evaluate valid and reliable workforce measures.
To report the current state of nurses' engagement in professional and organisational citizenship behaviours worldwide and identify the factors that enable or hinder these discretionary, value-adding actions.
Integrative literature review.
Peer-reviewed empirical studies, theoretical works and editorials published in English between January 2015 and April 2025 were eligible. Reports had to examine nurses' engagement in professional citizenship behaviours or organisational citizenship behaviours. Conference abstracts, dissertations and studies centred on non-nursing workforces were excluded. Quality was appraised with the mixed methods appraisal tool; data were synthesised narratively using constant-comparison techniques.
CINAHL Complete and MEDLINE were searched on 30 April 2025.
Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria: seventeen empirical studies (sixteen cross-sectional surveys; one randomised controlled trial) and two editorials. Research emerged across eight countries, including Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. For organisational citizenship, six inter-locking themes emerged: (1) psychological resources and personality, (2) attitudinal and affective mediators, (3) leadership effects, (4) ethical, fair and supportive climate, (5) outcomes (patient safety, job satisfaction, retention) of organisational citizenship and (6) sparse intervention evidence (one neurolinguistic programming RCT). No empirical studies directly measured professional citizenship; evidence is limited to two conceptual papers calling for civic, policy and professional association engagement. Thus, the main theme was (7) professional citizenship as a nascent (i.e., emerging) field. Overall, citizenship flourished when nurses felt psychologically resourced, fairly treated and supported by transformational or ethical leaders. Burnout, incivility and destructive leadership suppressed organisational citizenship behaviours.
Nurses' organisational citizenship behaviours yield important benefits for patients, staff and healthcare organisations, including improved safety, satisfaction and retention. In contrast, professional citizenship behaviours remain largely conceptual, highlighting the need for foundational research to define and operationalise this construct. Advancing both organisational and professional citizenship should be a strategic priority for health systems worldwide to sustain the nursing workforce and strengthen care quality.
Embedding citizenship behaviours in education, leadership development and policy can strengthen workforce retention, enhance patient-safety culture and drive professional advocacy. Priority actions include routine assessment of organisational citizenship behaviours, leadership coaching and instrument development, plus intervention trials targeting professional citizenship behaviours.
To describe how the potential presence of cognitive biases in emergency nurses may influence the triage process in people experiencing homelessness compared to those who were not.
Qualitative descriptive design using observations and interviews.
Twelve emergency department nurses participated in interviews after being observed for over 128 triage patient interactions. Qualitative content analysis was used for observation data and thematic analysis was used for interview data. Findings were compared to identify differences and similarities between the observed presence of bias and nurses' described experiences.
Observation findings included two themes: (1) Emergency medical services (EMS) presentation: Words matter and (2) Nurse response: Taking action. Interview findings identified four themes: (1) Objective interpretation, (2) Subjective interpretation, (3) Resulting disparities, and (4) Busy environment. Differences included nurses' observed actions of often disregarding people experiencing homelessness compared to perceptions of remaining impartial. Similarities included the presence of bias in observation and interviews and reflected how personal labels and assumptions can influence nurse response.
Findings provide evidence about how cognitive biases can influence the type of nurse response when triaging people experiencing homelessness and suggest an opportunity for future research to investigate strategies to mitigate bias during triage.
Emergency nurses may require additional bias awareness education specific to vulnerable populations.
Evidence from this research added knowledge about how bias in emergency nurses may influence nurse response when triaging people experiencing homelessness.
COREG.
Patient contribution included presence and behaviour within the observed nurse/patient interactions, providing data for the descriptive statistics. Patients were not actively involved in data collection or analysis in a participatory sense.
This study explored perceptions of older adults racialised as Black on structural resilience across the life course.
A qualitative descriptive study.
Using purposive sampling, we recruited 15 Black adults aged 50 and older residing in Baltimore, Maryland, including individuals possessing historical or current knowledge of the community. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit participants' experiences with structural resources during childhood, adulthood and late adulthood. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis.
Of the 15 participants, three identified as male (20.0%) and 12 as female (80.0%), with an average age of 70.9 ± 8.2 years. The analysis identified nine categories of structural resilience, confirming its multifaceted and dynamic nature. Common categories present across all life stages included: Built environment, civic engagement, food and housing, healthcare, and social capital and cohesion. Life stage–specific categories included child and family services, educational supports, and workforce development supports during childhood and adulthood, and financial support during adulthood and late adulthood.
These categories were interdependent and spanned across life stages, illustrating the dynamic, cumulative and relational qualities of structural resilience. Furthermore, structural resources were identified as key to safeguarding, empowering and restorative responses to adversity.
These findings contribute to the development of a nuanced, life course–informed framework of structural resilience and highlight the need for ecological strategies that address structural forces shaping health and well-being, particularly among older adults racialised as Black.
This study was reported in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist.
No patient or public contribution.
To explore the experiences of new graduate registered nurses in caring for the deteriorating patient in rural areas.
New graduate registered nurses often feel unprepared to care for the deteriorating patient. Whilst literature has recognised new graduate registered nurses working within metropolitan areas feel ill-equipped to care for deteriorating patients, there is a paucity of literature focused on experiences within the rural context.
Qualitative, descriptive phenomenological approach.
In-depth interviews were undertaken with 7 participants in rural Eastern Australia with collected data being subject to thematic analysis.
Three themes were identified that shares the lived experiences of the participants as they transitioned into the rural team: First encounters—Transition to the rural team; Practice support for managing deterioration; and The road to confidence.
New graduate registered nurses are unprepared to care for the deteriorating patient in rural areas. Practice support and barriers to ongoing education are influential on their experience with findings from this study supporting focused rural healthcare preparation from tertiary education providers, plus structured practice support from senior rural nurses and health facility orientation programs. Preparation should include the use of digital technologies and escalation and management of the deteriorating patient alongside rural policies and procedures to enhance patient safety and support new graduate rural nurses.
The findings have implications for tertiary undergraduate nursing education and those supporting New Graduate Registered Nurses in their transition to practice in rural areas. Enhancement of new graduate nurses' skills and abilities in recognition and responding to patient deterioration through both technological and personnel support will enhance patient safety within rural health care.
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR).
7 participants were involved in the study.
To examine the personal experiences and perceptions of people with dark skin tones and their carers, in relation to pressure injury.
Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews.
Twenty-two interviews with people with dark skin tone and/or their family carers, who were known to and visited by community nurses for pressure area management or who had been identified as being at high risk for developing a pressure injury were carried out.
Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that skin discolouration towards a darker hue than usual was the commonest symptom identified by participants as a sign of altered skin integrity and potential pressure damage. Four main overarching themes were revealed through comprehensive analysis of the transcripts: (1) indicators of pressure injury; (2) experienced symptoms of pressure damage; (3) trust in healthcare workers; and (4) improving care for populations with dark skin tones.
The findings from this study clearly present how early-stage pressure damage is identified among people with dark skin tones.
These findings have the potential to reduce health inequality by influencing and informing clinical policies and strategies in practice. Findings could also lead to the development of patient-informed educational strategies for nurses and health workers which will enable the early identification of pressure ulcers among people with dark skin tones. Further research is needed to better understand health disparities in relation to preventable patient safety harm.
The findings demonstrate the importance of engaging with and listening to the stories and experiences of people living with pressure damage to help in the early recognition of pressure injuries.
The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines for qualitative research were followed.
A project steering group reviewed information sheets for participants and checked the interview questions were relevant and suitable.
Simulation offers a feasible modality to prepare nurses for challenges communicating with patients with dementia. Elderspeak communication is speech that sounds like baby talk and can lead to rejection of care by patients with dementia. However, it is unknown if simulation can be used to capture elderspeak communication in dementia care. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine if simulation accurately captures elderspeak communication by nursing staff in hospital dementia care.
A 3-part mixed-methods design in which (1) three dementia care simulations were designed and validated by a panel of experts, (2) communication by nursing staff completing each simulation was quantitatively compared to communication during actual patient care, and (3) views on the realism were explored using within- and across-case coding.
Three simulations using different modalities (manikin, role-play, and standardised patient) were designed and validated with eight experts using the Lynn Method. Ten nursing staff were audio-recorded and their communication was coded for elderspeak communication. Results for each simulation were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test to recordings taken during actual dementia care encounters. Debriefings were coded for realism and results were converged.
The average time using elderspeak during naturalistic care was 29.9% (SD = 20.9%) which did not differ from the average amount of elderspeak used across the three simulations modalities which ranged from 29.1% to 30.4%. Qualitative results suggested a lack of realism with the manikin condition and the nursing staff indicated preference for the simulation with the standardised patient.
Communication elicited in the dementia care simulations was congruent to communication produced in actual dementia care but preference was for the standardised patient.
Elderspeak communication can be accurately produced in the simulated environment which indicates that simulation is a valid method for person-centred communication training in nursing staff.
Simulation offers a feasible modality to prepare nurses for challenges communicating with patients with dementia. Elderspeak communication is speech that sounds like baby talk and can lead to rejection of care by patients with dementia. However, it is unknown if simulation can be used to capture elderspeak communication in dementia care. Elderspeak communication captured in the simulated environment was congruent to communication nursing staff use during actual patient care to hospitalised persons living with dementia. This study empirically identifies that communication is elicited in similar patterns by nursing staff in the simulated environment compared to the naturalistic care environment which demonstrates that simulation can be used as a valid tool for education and research on person-centred communication.
STROBE.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
FreshRSS