- Nurses
- Students
- Educators
Nursing lenses
Technology guides usually judge AI by technical measures: accuracy, speed, cost. Those matter, but they aren't enough for nursing. This toolkit adds three lenses taken from nursing's own knowledge. They appear on every page.
1. Person-centred practice
McCormack & McCance (2006, 2021, 2025) & 2020–2026 Relational AI Scholarship
Does this use of AI keep the person—and their beliefs, values, and voice—at the centre of care?
2. Ways of knowing
Carper (1978), White (1995), Locsin (2005–2024), Chinn, Kramer & Sitzman (2021) & AI Epistemic Justice (2019–2026)
What does AI's empirical-sounding answer leave out that ethical, personal, aesthetic, sociopolitical, and emancipatory knowing catch?
3. Novice to expert
Benner (1984, 2009), Tanner (2006) & 2020–2026 Cognitive Offloading & AI Literacy Scholarship
Am I experienced enough in this clinical area to spot what the AI got wrong—or who should check it with me?
| Lens | Theory | The question it asks of AI |
|---|---|---|
| Person-centred practice | McCormack and McCance's Person-centred Practice Framework | Does this keep the person, and their values, at the centre of care? |
| Ways of knowing | Carper's patterns of knowing, with emancipatory knowing (Chinn and Kramer) | What does AI's evidence-style answer leave out that the other ways of knowing would catch? |
| Novice to expert | Benner's novice to expert | What does safe use look like at this person's stage of experience? |
The three-lens check
Before you act on anything AI has produced, ask:
- Person: would the person recognise themselves, and what matters to them, in this?
- Knowing: is it right in every sense: accurate, ethical, fitting for this person, and fair?
- Stage: am I experienced enough to spot what is wrong with it? If not, who should check it with me?
If any answer is "no" or "not sure", stop and check before going further.
Nursing theories give a shared language for judgement that doesn't depend on any one AI product. These three were chosen because together they cover values (person-centred practice), judgement (ways of knowing) and development (novice to expert). For the evidence behind emancipatory knowing, see Equity and AI. Other theories, such as Roper, Logan and Tierney's Activities of Living or Peplau's interpersonal relations, appear in individual case studies where they fit best.