Special Issue on Teaching and Training Future Health Informaticians: Increasing generative artificial intelligence competency among students enrolled in doctoral nursing research coursework.

Abstract

Generative AI tools may soon be integrated into healthcare practice and research. Nurses in leadership roles, many of whom are doctorally prepared, will need to determine whether and how to integrate them in a safe and useful way. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief intervention to increase PhD nursing students' knowledge of appropriate applications for using generative AI tools in healthcare. We created didactic lectures and laboratory-based activities to introduce generative AI to students enrolled in a nursing PhD data science and visualization course. Students were provided with a subscription to Chat GPT 4.0, a general-purpose generative AI tool, for use in and outside the class. During the didactic portion, we described generative AI and its current and potential future applications in healthcare, including examples of appropriate and inappropriate applications. In the laboratory sessions, students were given three tasks representing different use cases of generative AI in healthcare practice and research (clinical decision support, patient decision support, and scientific communication) and asked to engage with ChatGPT on each. Students (n=10) independently wrote a brief reflection for each task evaluating safety (accuracy, hallucinations) and usability (ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use in the future). Reflections were analyzed using directed content analysis. Students were able to identify the strengths and limitations of ChatGPT in completing all three tasks and developed opinions on whether they would feel comfortable using ChatGPT for similar tasks in the future. They also all reported increasing their self-rated competency in generative AI by one to two points on a 5-point rating scale. This brief educational intervention supported doctoral nursing students in understanding the appropriate uses of ChatGPT, which may support their ability to appraise and use these tools in their future work.