AI-Ready Nurses
A scalable solution combining nursing-centered AI infrastructure, stackable credentials, and hands-on AI learning to embed AI across the nursing lifecycle, supporting women in the workforce.
About
Our Vision
We believe that nursing education and clinical training should intentionally prepare nurses to use artificial intelligence safely, ethically, and effectively to enhance patient care. AI Ready Nurses is dedicated to building nursing-centered AI infrastructure and stackable learning experiences that bridge the power of generative AI with the rigorous safety and pedagogical requirements of nursing education and practice, supporting women's careers across the nursing lifecycle.
The Challenge
Nursing is currently facing a dual crisis: a massive workforce shortage and a rapidly increasing complexity in clinical care. Nurses are at the center of how AI can expand economic opportunity and sustainable careers across the nursing lifecycle. While generative AI offers a "bold and scalable" way to support this workforce, current unconstrained AI interfaces are often:
- Poorly Aligned: Generic AI doesn't understand specific nursing workflows, pedagogical goals, or the realities of nurses' work and career pathways.
- High Risk: Unchecked outputs can pose unacceptable risks in nursing education and clinical learning environments.
- Overwhelming: Raw LLM interactions can increase cognitive load rather than reducing it.
Our Solution
Nursing-First AI Framework
We are engineering a scalable solution that builds on the strong foundation of general-purpose Large Language Models (LLM's) while providing nursing-centered AI infrastructure, stackable credentials, and hands-on AI learning experiences. The nursing workforce has seen lower adoption of AI tools, and our mission is to embed AI across the nursing lifecycle and to understand what nurses genuinely want and need from AI toolchains to then provide it in ways that support the nursing workforce.
Nursing-Lead Development
Our computer science partners will work directly with the nursing community to understand the resources they need to be successful, leading to a tool that will actually deliver on its promises.
Safe AI Tools
We enforce explicit safety boundaries, ensuring that no data ever leaves our tool and the local devices it is used on. We work strictly with local institutional policies and course guidelines to ensure our platform is safe for both nurses and their patients.
Education-First Platform
Our initial rollout aims to directly support nursing students during their education. Our computer science partners and OUHSC to ensure that our tool aligns with existing course objectives and learning goals.
Reach Across the Nursing Career Lifecycle
The AI-Ready Nurses (AIRN) project leverages an evidence-based co-design process to bridge the gap between AI development and clinical nursing practice. By integrating feedback from students, educators, and practitioners into its "Nursing-Aware" infrastructure, AIRN ensures that AI tools support rather than override professional judgment.
The project is designed for systemic, career-long impact through:
Statewide Transformation
Targeting 7,700+ practicing nurses across Oklahoma to improve healthcare outcomes in a state currently ranked 45th in the U.S.
Educational Innovation
Enrolling 1,200+ students and 400+ educators in a curriculum featuring stackable AI credentials and risk-free simulation scenarios.
National Scalability
Establishing a "National Blueprint" for nursing-first AI adoption, creating a replicable model for the 5 million nurses nationwide.
Our Team
About our Team
The project operates using a hub‑and‑spoke collaboration model, led by the Oklahoma Center for Nursing (OCN) as the central coordinating hub. OCN provides project leadership, fiscal oversight, reporting, and statewide workforce alignment, ensuring activities reflect nursing needs across all regions of Oklahoma.
Team Structure & Organization
The AI-Ready Nurses initiative is led through a collaborative, nursing-centered structure that brings together statewide workforce leadership, academic nursing expertise, and applied computer science.
Oklahoma Center for Nursing
The Oklahoma Center for Nursing (OCN) serves as the lead and coordinating organization, providing overall project leadership, fiscal oversight, reporting, and statewide workforce alignment. OCN ensures the framework reflects real nursing workforce needs across urban, rural, and frontier communities in Oklahoma and supports dissemination and adoption across education and practice settings.
Patrice Greenawalt
Executive Director of the Oklahoma Center for Nursing (MS, RN (PI))
Patrice Greenawalt provides overall project leadership and strategic direction, bringing 45 years of clinical and leadership experience in nursing. She oversees coordination across partners, ensures alignment with statewide workforce priorities, and guides dissemination and adoption across healthcare and education settings.
OU Health Campus College of Nursing
The OU Health Campus College of Nursing leads educational strategy, curriculum integration, and credential design. Faculty leadership ensures the stackable credentials align with nursing competencies, accreditation standards, and pathways spanning pre-licensure education, continuing education, and workforce development. The College also oversees evaluation related to learner confidence, readiness, and adoption.
Helina Hoyt
OU Health Campus College of Nursing (PhD, RN, PHN (Co‑PI))
Dr. Helina Hoyt leads educational strategy, credential design, and integration across nursing education and continuing education, grounded in evidence‑based and innovative practice.
Karina Shreffler
OU Health Campus College of Nursing (PhD (Co‑PI))
Dr. Karina Shreffler leads evaluation and outcomes measurement related to workforce readiness, confidence, and adoption.
OU School of Computer Science
The University of Oklahoma School of Computer Science leads technical design and applied AI learning, developing sandboxed, non-clinical environments that allow nurses to engage with AI safely and ethically. Computer Science faculty collaborate closely with nursing leaders to translate AI concepts into accessible, practice-relevant learning experiences.
Ze Shi Li
OU School of Computer Science (PhD (Co‑PI))
Dr. Ze Shi Li leads development of the sandboxed AI learning environment and applied learning activities.
Sridhar Radhakrishnan
OU School of Computer Science (PhD (Co‑PI))
Dr. Sridhar Radhakrishnan leads development of the sandboxed AI learning environment and applied learning activities.
Sean Mackay
OU School of Computer Science (PhD (Co‑PI))
Dr. Sean Mackay leads nursing-first AI framework design, bringing expertise in computing education research and educational software development.
Together, these partners operate under a shared governance model coordinated by OCN, with regular cross-organizational collaboration to ensure the initiative remains nursing-first, ethically grounded, and scalable across healthcare and education systems.