Relational AI & FoNS Insights
Original work: "Educators' guide to multimodal learning and Generative AI" — Tünde Varga-Atkins, Samuel Saunders, et al. (2024/25) — CC BY-NC 4.0
Adapted for UK Nursing Education by: Lincoln Gombedza, RN (LD)
Last Updated: December 2025
What is Relational AI?
Relational AI is an approach to using artificial intelligence that prioritises the relational aspects of nursing—empathy, compassion, and person-centredness—over purely transactional outputs. It moves AI from being a tool that simply generates answers to one that helps nurses reflect on their practice.
"AI cannot feel, but it can help us examine how we feel about the care we give."
This approach is inspired by the work of the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS), whose International Practice Development Journal is a treasure trove of open-access, peer-reviewed research on person-centred practice.
The FoNS "Person-Centred Nursing Framework"
The Person-Centred Nursing Framework (McCormack & McCance, 2006; updated 2017) is a widely-used model that underpins person-centred care. It consists of four key constructs:
| Construct | Description |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites | Attributes of the nurse (competence, commitment, values) |
| The Care Environment | Context in which care is delivered (skill mix, systems, culture) |
| Person-Centred Processes | Working with the patient's beliefs, values and engagement |
| Expected Outcomes | Satisfaction, involvement, well-being |
Using AI to Reflect on the Framework
AI can help students and educators apply this framework by:
- Analysing care plans: Prompting AI to identify where a care plan does (or does not) reflect person-centred processes.
- Simulating reflective dialogue: Using AI to role-play a clinical supervisor who asks probing questions about a student's experience.
- Translating "Medicalese": Checking care documentation for jargon and suggesting more accessible, person-centred language.
Open-Source Resources from FoNS
The following resources from FoNS are freely available for educational use:
| Resource | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| IPDJ Archive | Full archive of the International Practice Development Journal (2011-2023) | fons.org/library/journal |
| Creating Caring Cultures | Programme for developing person-centred workplaces | fons.org/programmes |
| Resilience-based Clinical Supervision | Model for restorative supervision | fons.org/resources |
The "Wisdom Engine" Concept
An emerging open-source initiative, often referred to as the "Wisdom Engine" or Relational AI for Nursing, involves training AI models on nursing-specific, person-centred literature.
Key Features:
- Grounded in Evidence: Models are fine-tuned on datasets derived from peer-reviewed nursing research, including FoNS publications.
- Person-Centred Language: Outputs are designed to reflect the language and values of compassionate nursing, not generic chatbot responses.
- Synthetic Datasets: Publicly available training data includes "flashcards" for nursing theory, such as clinical transcripts paired with SBAR notes.
If you are interested in exploring how AI can be trained on nursing values, look into open-source projects like the Nursing Citizen Development initiative.
Try It: Relational AI Prompts
Prompt 1: Reflective Supervision
Act as a clinical supervisor using the FoNS Resilience-based Clinical Supervision model. I am a nursing student who just had a difficult interaction with a patient who was refusing treatment. Help me reflect on the person-centredness of my communication, using the Person-Centred Nursing Framework (McCormack & McCance).
Ask me open-ended questions to guide my reflection. Do not give me answers; help me discover insights myself.
Prompt 2: Care Plan Review
I will provide you with a nursing care plan. Your role is to act as an expert in person-centred care. Analyse the care plan and identify:
1. Areas where person-centred processes are evident.
2. Areas where the language could be more patient-focused.
3. Suggestions for incorporating the patient's own goals and values.
Please use the Person-Centred Nursing Framework as your guide.
[Paste care plan here]