Practical Tips for Educators Using GenAI
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
This section offers five key practical areas for nursing educators utilizing Generative AI in multimodal teaching. These tips provide strategies for streamlining teaching processes, effective human-AI collaboration, demonstrating AI use to students, evaluation criteria, and enhancing AI literacy.
1. ⏱️ Save Time with Smart Use of AI Tools
Educators can free up valuable time by using GenAI to streamline resource creation and administrative tasks.
What You Can Do:
Content Creation:
- Generate care pathway diagrams for lectures
- Create copyright-free anatomical illustrations
- Build slides quickly for presentations
- Develop training materials and lesson plans
Assessment Materials:
- Create quiz questions aligned with NMC competencies
- Generate OSCE scenarios
- Develop reflection prompts
- Build marking rubrics
Accessibility:
- Convert documents into audio formats
- Create study guides from lecture notes
- Generate FAQs from course materials
- Produce explainer videos using animated characters
Nursing-Specific Examples:
Example 1: Quick Quiz Generation
Prompt (for Gemini 3 Pro, GPT-5, or Claude Sonnet 4):
"Create 10 multiple-choice questions to assess Year 2 nursing students'
understanding of hypertension management, aligned with NICE guidelines CG127.
Include rationales for correct answers."
Example 2: Care Pathway Conversion
Prompt (for Gemini 3 Pro or GPT-5):
"Convert this diabetes Type 2 management NICE guideline into a visual
flowchart showing decision points for medication escalation. Use Mermaid diagram
syntax."
Example 3: Accessibility Enhancement
Prompt (for any LLM):
"Summarize this 20-page lecture on wound healing and create a podcast
script (8-10 minutes) suitable for students with dyslexia or those who prefer
audio learning."
If you're short on time, GenAI software can potentially convert existing documents into study aids or activities—such as FAQs, quizzes, or dedicated study guides—automatically.
2. 🪞 Mirror AI Use: Show Your Process
Model transparency by showing students how YOU use GenAI tools in your own workflow. This builds trust and teaches responsible use.
How to Mirror AI Use:
In Lectures:
- Share your screen while crafting prompts
- Show iterations—explain why you refined a prompt
- Demonstrate how you verify AI outputs against NICE/NMC sources
- Discuss what worked and what didn't
In Assignments:
- Require students to document their AI use
- Ask them to submit prompts alongside outputs
- Have them reflect on why they chose to use AI (or not)
- Encourage critical commentary on AI limitations
In Assessment Feedback:
- Show students how you might use AI to generate draft feedback
- Demonstrate how you personalize and refine it
- Explain what you verify and change
Activity: Compare AI vs Human Content
Use class time to compare AI-created content with human-created content. This sparks rich discussion and teaches students to evaluate outputs critically.
Nursing Example:
- Show an AI-generated care plan
- Show a care plan written by an experienced nurse
- Ask students to identify differences
- Discuss: What did AI miss? What did it get right? What needs human judgment?
"I show my students my ChatGPT conversation history when I'm creating patient scenarios. They see my prompts, the AI's responses, and my edits. It demystifies the process." — Nursing educator
This authentic modeling helps students understand that AI is a tool for drafting and ideation, not a final product.
3. ✅ Use Checklists to Guide Ethical & Sustainable AI Use
Before sharing or submitting AI-generated materials, use a checklist to ensure responsible use.
Essential Checklist Questions:
Clinical Accuracy:
- Have I verified this against authoritative sources (NICE, NMC, BNF, Cochrane)?
- Are anatomical details/physiological processes correct?
- Are medication doses, routes, and frequencies accurate?
- Does this align with current evidence-based practice?
Ethical Considerations:
- Does this content include sensitive or copyrighted information?
- Could this image or text unintentionally reinforce a stereotype?
- Is this the best use of AI, or is it just the most convenient?
- Have I respected patient confidentiality (no real patient data in prompts)?
Bias & Representation:
- Does this represent diverse patient populations appropriately?
- Are different ethnic backgrounds, ages, and genders represented?
- Does the language promote dignity and person-centred care?
- Could this perpetuate health inequalities or biases?
Sustainability:
- Is this AI use necessary and meaningful?
- Am I avoiding elaborate or purely decorative image generations?
- Have I considered the carbon cost of this generation?
Data Protection:
- Am I using institutional AI tools (not public ChatGPT for sensitive data)?
- Have I removed any identifiable patient information from prompts?
- Am I complying with NHS Data Security Protection Toolkit?
- Does this meet Caldicott Principles?
NEVER input:
- Real patient names, NHS numbers, or identifiable data
- Student grades or personal information
- Unpublished research data
- Confidential trust information
Use instead:
- Institutional AI tools with data protection
- Anonymized case examples
- Hypothetical scenarios
- Public domain information
Downloadable Checklist:
Download NHS-Compliant GenAI Checklist (PDF)
4. 🤝 Design for Human-AI Collaboration, Not Substitution
Think of AI as a co-pilot, not a chauffeur. The goal is to augment human capability, not replace it.
Principles of Human-AI Collaboration:
AI does:
- Generate drafts and prototypes
- Offer multiple alternatives quickly
- Process large amounts of information
- Create multimodal representations
Humans do:
- Provide clinical judgment and expertise
- Apply ethical reasoning and accountability
- Add nuance, context, and care
- Make final decisions and verify accuracy
Nursing Education Examples:
Example 1: Care Planning
- AI role: Generate initial care plan framework based on patient scenario
- Student role: Personalize for individual patient, apply clinical reasoning, verify interventions, demonstrate critical thinking
Example 2: Pathophysiology Learning
- AI role: Create visual diagram of disease process
- Student role: Explain the diagram, identify clinical implications, relate to practice, critique accuracy
Example 3: Interview Preparation
- AI role: Generate potential interview questions from job description
- Student role: Practice responses aloud using voice feature, refine delivery and tone, demonstrate professional communication
Make it clear that students must do the intellectual heavy lifting—they can use GenAI to get help going from A to B, but not to skip from A to Z.
Assignment instructions should specify:
- What AI can help with (brainstorming, drafting, formatting)
- What AI cannot replace (critical analysis, clinical judgment, reflection)
- How to document AI use transparently
5. 📚 Teach AI Literacy as a Core Skill
Don't assume students (or colleagues) know how to use AI effectively or responsibly. Build in explicit teaching about AI literacy.
What to Teach:
Prompt Engineering:
- The clearer the input, the better the result
- Teach students to be specific and detailed
- Practice iterative refinement of prompts
- Show examples of poor vs. excellent prompts
Activity: Prompt Engineering Challenge
Give students this scenario: "You need AI to generate a patient scenario for
practicing medication administration."
Poor prompt: "Create a patient scenario"
Good prompt: "Create a realistic patient scenario for a 68-year-old patient
with atrial fibrillation prescribed warfarin. Include relevant medical history,
current medications, vital signs, and INR result. The scenario should require
the student to: 1) Check INR and determine if warfarin dose needs adjustment,
2) Provide patient education about warfarin, 3) Identify signs of bleeding
complications."
Have students compare the outputs!
Tool Strengths & Limitations:
- Some tools provide sources (Perplexity AI, Bing Chat with citations)
- Others don't (ChatGPT standard mode)
- AI can 'hallucinate' facts, especially in images
- Multimodal outputs may have hidden inaccuracies
Critical Evaluation Skills:
- Always verify clinical information
- Check for bias in representation
- Question oversimplifications
- Look for what's missing, not just what's present
Incorporation Strategies:
In Assignments:
- Week 1: Intro to AI literacy (what it is, why it matters)
- Week 3: Hands-on prompt engineering workshop
- Week 5: Critical evaluation of AI outputs exercise
- Week 10: Reflection on personal AI use throughout module
Tool-Specific Training: When asking students to use a specific tool (e.g., H5P for digital field notebooks, Padlet for collaboration), teach the platform first and check for accessibility needs.
Ask students to document how and why they used AI in their work. This builds reflection and reinforces responsible habits.
Example submission requirement:
"Along with your final care plan, submit a 200-word reflection on your use of GenAI. Include: (1) What prompts you used, (2) How you verified accuracy, (3) What you changed or rejected from AI outputs, (4) What you learned about AI limitations."
Summary: Five Key Practical Areas
| Area | What to Do | Nursing Example |
|---|---|---|
| ⏱️ Save Time | Use AI for resource creation & admin | Generate quiz questions, convert lectures to podcasts |
| 🪞 Mirror Use | Show students your AI process | Live demo prompt refinement in class |
| ✅ Use Checklists | Verify ethics, accuracy, bias | Check AI care plans against NICE guidelines |
| 🤝 Collaboration | AI drafts, humans refine | Students personalize AI-generated scenarios |
| 📚 Teach Literacy | Explicit AI skills training | Prompt engineering workshops, critical evaluation |
Action Plan: Getting Started
This week:
- Choose ONE teaching session to experiment with AI
- Document what you try and what happens
- Share with a colleague for feedback
This month:
- Develop your own GenAI checklist for your subject area
- Create one "mirror AI use" demonstration for students
- Design one activity that teaches AI literacy explicitly
This semester:
- Integrate AI literacy into module learning outcomes
- Build a bank of prompts and examples to share with students
- Reflect on what worked and refine your approach
Next: See these tips in action with Nursing Examples!