Using ChatGPT to Strengthen Clinical Judgment in Nursing Education
Artificial intelligence is already changing how students search for information, study complex topics, and prepare for the future of healthcare. That shift creates an important question: Should nursing education try to keep artificial intelligence out of the classroom, or teach students how to use it responsibly?
A recent article by Rachel Cox Simms, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, associate professor at the School of Nursing at Mass General Brigham University, presents a practical answer: work with ChatGPT, not against it. Rather than viewing generative artificial intelligence only as a threat to academic integrity, Simms presents three teaching strategies designed to help students develop critical thinking, clinical judgment, and evidence-based practice skills.
Nursing students need more than the ability to find information quickly. They need to know how to question that information, check it against reliable sources, and apply it safely in clinical situations.
Why Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Requires Critical Thinking
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can produce study guides, practice questions, case examples, and written explanations within seconds. That can be useful, but it also carries risk. AI-generated content may sound confident while still being incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate. In a field where decisions affect patient care, students cannot afford to accept information at face value.
Simms identifies two key concerns for nurse educators: academic integrity and information accuracy. Students could misuse AI to complete assignments without doing their own work. They could also rely on AI-generated study materials that include errors. Nursing students must learn how to evaluate AI-generated information with the same care they would bring to any clinical source.
Instead of asking students to avoid ChatGPT, faculty can design assignments that require students to critique, revise, and verify what the tool produces.
Using ChatGPT as a Learning Scaffold
The article frames ChatGPT as a scaffold, or a form of guided support, that helps students begin a task while still requiring them to do the deeper learning. In this model, AI does not replace faculty expertise, course content, or clinical reasoning. It gives students material to examine.
A student who asks ChatGPT to generate a nursing question has not completed the learning process. The learning happens when the student reviews the question, checks the answer, evaluates the rationale, identifies what is missing, and supports revisions with credible sources.
This approach aligns well with evidence-based practice. Nurses must use the best available evidence, clinical expertise, and patient context when making decisions. By asking students to verify AI-generated content, educators can reinforce those same habits before students enter practice.
Three Teaching Strategies for Nursing Students
Simms presents three classroom activities that show how artificial intelligence in nursing education can support learning when used with structure and oversight.
The first strategy asks students to use ChatGPT to generate NCLEX-style practice questions. Students work in groups to create questions across nursing topics, then review them for accuracy, clinical relevance, difficulty, and alignment with the NCLEX-RN test plan. They also refine the rationales and support the correct answers with authoritative references.
This activity helps students prepare for exams, but its deeper value is in the review process. Students must think like nurses and educators; deciding if a question is clinically sound, whether the answer choices make sense, and whether the rationale reflects accurate nursing knowledge.
The second strategy focuses on Next Generation NCLEX-style case scenarios. Students use ChatGPT to help create patient cases and related questions, then analyze whether the scenarios reflect realistic clinical challenges. They review the cases for accuracy, clarity, and alignment with clinical decision-making.
This type of activity can make abstract concepts more concrete. Instead of memorizing isolated facts, students practice thinking through patient situations, noticing relevant details, and connecting information to nursing action.
The third strategy uses the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Clinical Judgment Measurement Model. Students develop clinical scenarios that move through steps such as recognizing cues, analyzing cues, prioritizing hypotheses, generating solutions, taking action, and evaluating outcomes.
This activity is designed to support the development of clinical judgment. It asks students to think through what they notice, what they believe is happening, what actions they should take, and how they will know whether those actions worked. ChatGPT may help generate parts of the case, but students remain responsible for evaluating the information and applying nursing knowledge.
Preparing Nurses for a Technology-Rich Future
The article’s primary contribution is a practical framework for using AI to support learning in nursing education. The message is not that ChatGPT is always correct or that students should rely on it without question. The message is that AI can become a useful teaching tool when faculty build assignments around critique, verification, and reflection.
That approach prepares nursing students for a healthcare environment where technology will continue to shape how clinicians access and interpret information. Nurses will need to understand the limits of artificial intelligence in nursing, especially when patient care depends on sound judgment.
At Mass General Brigham University, faculty scholarship like Simms’ reflects a broader commitment to preparing students for the future of healthcare. By exploring responsible uses of AI in the classroom, educators can help students become thoughtful users of technology rather than passive recipients of information.
Clinical judgment does not come from technology alone. It comes from curiosity, careful evaluation, evidence-based practice, and the ability to connect knowledge to patient care. When used thoughtfully, ChatGPT can help nursing students practice those habits and enter the profession better prepared for a changing healthcare landscape.
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