Attribution & Licence
Origins
This AI Nursing Constitution was inspired by and structurally adapted from:
"Claude's Constitution"
Authors: Amanda Askell, Joe Carlsmith, Chris Olah, Jared Kaplan, Holden Karnofsky, and several Claude models
Publisher: Anthropic
Published: January 21, 2026
Licence: CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
The CC0 1.0 licence means the original document is in the public domain — it can be freely used, adapted, and redistributed by anyone for any purpose without restriction.
This Adaptation
Title: The AI Nursing Constitution
Author: Lincoln Gombedza, RN (LD)
Published: February 2026
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
What Was Adapted
This document mirrors the architectural structure of Claude's Constitution but is an original work. Every section has been:
- Rewritten for nursing practice as the primary audience
- Grounded in the NMC Code (2018), the ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses (2021), and the 6Cs of nursing
- Contextualised within UK clinical governance, NHS structures, and healthcare regulation
- Aligned with emerging NMC AI guidance (expected 2027), MHRA AI regulation, and NHS digital strategy
Key Architectural Concepts Adapted
| Claude's Constitution | This AI Nursing Constitution |
|---|---|
| Priority stack (Safety > Ethics > Guidelines > Helpfulness) | Priority stack (Patient Safety > Professional Ethics > Organisational Governance > Person-Centred Helpfulness) |
| Principal hierarchy (Anthropic > Operators > Users) | Governance hierarchy (Regulators > Organisations > Practitioners > People Receiving Care) |
| Seven honesty components | Seven honesty components (adapted for clinical context) |
| Hard constraints | Hard constraints (nursing-specific bright lines) |
| Instructable behaviours | Instructable behaviours (clinical defaults and adjustables) |
| Claude's nature & wellbeing | The nurse-AI relationship & AI wellbeing in practice |
| Open problems | Open questions |
How to Cite This Work
Academic Citation (APA 7th)
Gombedza, L. (2026). The AI Nursing Constitution: A foundational framework
for the safe, ethical, and person-centred use of AI in nursing practice.
AI Educator Toolkit. https://github.com/Clinical-Quality-Artifical-Intelligence/nursing-ai-toolkit
Inspired by: Askell, A., Carlsmith, J., Olah, C., Kaplan, J., Karnofsky, H.,
et al. (2026). Claude's Constitution. Anthropic. CC0 1.0.
Attribution for Adaptation
If you adapt or build upon this constitution, please attribute as follows:
Original inspiration: "Claude's Constitution" by Anthropic (2026) — CC0 1.0
Adapted for nursing: "The AI Nursing Constitution" by Lincoln Gombedza, RN (LD) (2026) — CC BY-NC 4.0
Your adaptation: [describe your changes]
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
Related Projects
This constitution is part of a broader ecosystem of AI nursing education resources:
- AI Educator Toolkit — The parent project for this constitution
- Open Nursing Core Implementation Guide — FHIR IG for nursing-specific clinical concepts
- NurseReason Dataset — Clinical reasoning dataset for AI training
- NurseSim-Triage — Manchester Triage System AI model
Acknowledgements
This constitution would not exist without:
- Anthropic — for open-sourcing Claude's Constitution under CC0 1.0, enabling adaptation
- The NMC — for its ongoing work to integrate AI guidance into professional standards
- The nursing profession — for continuing to lead conversations about ethical technology use in care
- The AI education community — for its commitment to responsible and transparent AI development
- FONS and the person-centred practice community — for the philosophical foundation on which person-centred AI care is built
Contact
For questions, feedback, or collaboration:
We welcome contributions from nurses, students, educators, researchers, regulators, and technologists.