The nursing process
Relational AI & Practice Development
Relational AI — using AI in ways that prioritise empathy, compassion and person-centredness, grounded in practice development.
McCormack & McCance — apply the Person-centred Practice Framework: prerequisites, environment, processes and outcomes.
Reflect, don't outsource — prompt AI to ask open questions that guide your reflection, rather than giving you answers.
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 grounded in practice development principles and open-access research published in the International Practice Development Journal by the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS).
The Person-centred Practice Framework
The Person-centred Practice Framework was developed by Brendan McCormack and Tanya McCance (first published 2006; latest version McCance and McCormack, 2021). It is widely used in practice development, including in work published by the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS). It has four constructs:
Prerequisites
Attributes of the nurse: professional competence, interpersonal skills, commitment to the job, and clarity of beliefs and values.
The Practice Environment
The context in which care is delivered: appropriate skill mix, shared decision-making systems, and supportive workplace culture.
Person-centred Processes
Working with the person's beliefs and values, engaging authentically, being sympathetically present, and sharing decision-making.
Person-centred Outcomes
A healthful culture, in which people receiving care and staff feel valued, respected and involved.
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-Access Practice Development Resources
The following practice development resources from FoNS are freely available for educational use:
| Resource | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| IPDJ Archive | Open-access archive of the International Practice Development Journal, from 2011 | fons.org/library/journal |
| Creating Caring Cultures | Programme for developing person-centred workplace cultures | Creating Caring Cultures |
| Resilience-based Clinical Supervision | Clinical supervision programme and resources | Clinical supervision |
Try It: Relational AI Prompts
Act as a clinical supervisor using practice development principles and the 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 Practice Framework (McCormack and McCance).
Ask me open-ended questions to guide my reflection. Do not give me answers; help me discover insights myself.
I will provide you with a nursing care plan. Your role is to act as an expert in person-centred care and practice development principles. 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 Practice Framework as your guide.
[Paste care plan here]
Quick self-check: Relational AI & McCormack and McCance
In relational AI grounded in McCormack and McCance's Person-Centred Practice Framework, how should a nursing student use an AI assistant after a challenging clinical shift?