Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. Healthcare simulation educators, simulation specialists, and researchers are faced with the opportunities and challenges of ethical use of AI. This HealthySimulation.com article by Teresa Gore, PhD, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, FSSH, FAAN, will review some AI Healthcare articles, social media posts, online resources, and other sources for AI applications that are relevant to healthcare simulation from summer 2025. The field of healthcare simulation will be greatly impacted by Artificial Intelligence so all clinical simulation champions are encouraged to follow along with these new AI recaps monthly. Have something to share? Email us!
Effectiveness of integrating generative artificial intelligence with virtual reality for maternity communication simulation: A randomized controlled trial: Communication and empathy are equally vital in maternity nursing. However, nursing students often encounter difficulties in clinical communication due to a lack of communication skills training. A Natural Language Processing Virtual Reality Communication Simulation (NLP-VRCS) was developed by integrating ChatGPT-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) with virtual reality to assist communication skills training. The empathy, communication confidence, and skills of nursing students trained using the NLP-VRCS (n = 53) were compared to those who received traditional training (n = 52) at baseline (T0), one week (T1), one month (T2), and two months after the training (T3).
After the results were adjusted using generalized estimating equations, the experimental group scores regarding empathy, communication confidence, and communication skills at T1, T2, and T3 were significantly higher than those of the control group. NLP-VRCS offers personalized training sessions and advice on communication strategies through real-time interactions with a virtual pregnant woman and AI-powered instant assessment and feedback.
Healthcare Simulation Scenario Builder by Dr. Liz Robison: Dr. Liz has developed a custom GPT App called “Healthcare Simulation Scenario Builder” designed specifically for healthcare simulation educators, faculty, and instructional designers. This AI-powered tool walks users through a step-by-step scenario creation process aligned with:
- The NLN Simulation Design Template (2023)
- The Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice: Simulation Design (2021)
- The AACN Essentials (2021)
- OpenRN textbook resources
What does the Healthcare Simulation Scenario Builder do? If you are a nurse educator looking to streamline scenario design without compromising instructional integrity, check out this free app.
- Builds fictitious patient cases tailored to your learner level
- Aligns psychomotor & cognitive skills to AACN competencies
- Auto-generates SBAR reports, cueing strategies, prebriefing & debriefing scripts
- Suggests open-access learning resources
- Outputs a ready-to-edit simulation draft—perfect for nursing education
- This is simulation design reimagined—with AI as your teaching assistant.
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Using Generative AI to Help Design Healthcare Simulation Scenarios to learn more!
Dr. Liz Robison has a Podcast: Dr Liz Podcast on PodBean Deep Dive into Nursing Education Topics Using AI. Here are a few examples of the podcasts available. Episode 34: AI in Nursing Education – Findings from a Scoping Review; Episode 24: How Generative AI Impacts Self-Directed Learning and Episode 19: Sentience and Experiential Learning – How it Applies to Simulation-Based Learning.
Dr. Youssef Aboufandi, MD, Founder of Ai-Powered.Healthcare, posted on LinkedIn, the 12 Must Know AI Healthcare Papers recently published, and 14 Non-Negotiables for AI in Healthcare.
Shruti Tripathi on LinkedIn, has posted multiple resources available on advanced ChatGPT prompts and courses to take for use of AI.
- Google Introduction to Generative AI
- Google Prompting Engineering
- Google AI Essentials
- Google Crash Course on Python
- Machine Learning Specialization
- Google Cloud Fundamentals
- Google data Analytics
- Get Started with Python by Google
- Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate
- Introduction to Web Development
- AI for Everyone – DeepLearning AI
- Become AI Developer
- Generative AI Automation
- Building with Large Language Models by DeepLearning AI
- Prompt Engineering Basics by IBM
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Comparing Standardized Patients vs AI-Enhanced Virtual Patients in Clinical Training to learn more!
Bajwa M, Morton A, Patel A P, Palaganas, J. C., & Gross, I. T. (April 29, 2025). Artificial intelligence: Crossing a threshold in healthcare education and simulation. Cureus J Comput Sci 2 : es44389-025-03758-3. doi: https://doi.org/10.7759/s44389-025-03758-3. (This is available online via a PDF.)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transformative, irreversible, and integrative, properties that align with the threshold concept in education, to fundamentally reshape how healthcare professionals learn, make decisions, and practice. Despite the vast potential, AI’s role in healthcare education remains underexplored, and traditional publishing struggles to keep pace with rapid advancements. The challenge is to bridge disciplines, foster collaboration between healthcare professionals, AI researchers, data scientists, and healthcare educators to accelerate research dissemination and maintain academic rigor. The ability to understand AI as a threshold concept is essential; once grasped, can permanently transforms perspectives on healthcare education and cannot be unlearned. Call to action:
- Build Faculty Readiness Through Structured AI Literacy Programs
- Develop and Validate Representative AI Training Tools
- Redesign Peer Review Process with AI as a Support Tool, Not as a Replacement
- Align Institutional Policies With Educational and Ethical Priorities
View the new HealthySimulation.com Community AI in Healthcare Simulation Group to discuss this topic with your Global Healthcare Simulation peers!
Devin Marblehas been an invited presenter for conferences, webinars, YouTube, and articles.
The future of clinical training is accessible, diverse, and more hands-on than ever before. Innovation is no longer optional. Various modalities are now required to educate healthcare professionals for the real world. The community needs innovation, because we need the nurses. Realistic patient interactions are now within reach. Whether mastering communication, critical thinking, or practical skills in MR, learners can now train with lifelike patients representing diverse ethnicities, languages, and medical conditions.
Dr. Federico Lorenzo Barra, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale logo Adjunct Teaching Professor, and colleagues recently wrote From prompt to platform: an agentic AI workflow for healthcare simulation scenario design, with the primary aim of this innovation was to develop an AI-powered system capable of significantly reducing the time and effort required to create high-quality, standards-compliant healthcare simulation scenarios. This reduction in development time was hypothesized to free up valuable educator resources, allowing for greater focus on learner interaction and debriefing
Quality Healthcare Simulations in 5 Minutes!was built by Kelly M Foltz-Ramos, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, and is a CustomGPT I developed to support simulationists, faculty, and interprofessional educators with evidence-based, time-saving tools. With this AI assistant, you can instantly generate:
- Simulation scenarios
- Prebriefing and debriefing guides
- Standardized patient scripts
- Team-based training resources
This tool draws from:
- NLN Simulation Design Template
- INACSL Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice
- AACN Essentials
- IPEC Core Competencies
- ASPE Standards of Best Practice
Whether teaching nursing, pharmacy, PT, OT, medicine, or more, this AI app supports high-quality, interprofessional simulation in minutes. This app requires a free ChatGPT account, no Plus subscription is required. Try the ChatGPT Quality Healthcare Simulations in 5 Minutes! app.
The Partnership Principle for Healthcare Simulations Using Artificial Intelligence: Simulationists and Techies Need to Communicate! Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare simulation offers significant educational benefits, yet collaboration between simulationists and AI developers remains challenging due to differing expertise and objectives. This study examines the reasons and process of structured partnerships to optimize AI-driven simulations through a hermeneutic narrative review. It identifies critical collaboration points and introduces the AI-Simulation Partnership Framework, which aligns AI capabilities with healthcare simulation and instructional design principles. Key findings emphasize interdisciplinary communication, iterative co-design, and ethical considerations. By standardizing collaboration, the proposed framework can help align simulation development with stakeholders’ needs through improved communication. Serving as a critical collaborative checklist and a practical tool, the AI-Simulation Partnership Framework may improve the efficiency and sustainability of AI-driven simulations without causing feature bloat or omission. More targeted and adaptable simulations can, in turn, enhance training quality, which is essential for building clinical competence and improving patient care outcomes.
Learn More About Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Simulation!
