At the second Children’s Nursing Educator’s Forum of 2025, Dr. Cheng-Wen Huang from the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching delivered a compelling presentation on the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in nursing education.

Dr. Huang guided attendees through the opportunities and risks of AI in teaching and learning. Her return to the Forum marked a significant shift: when she first presented in July 2023, only 35% of attendees reported regular use of AI tools like ChatGPT. Now, less than two years later, a quick poll revealed that most participants use AI regularly in their teaching or professional work.

AI: Not a Library, But a Language Model

Dr. Huang clarified a common misconception: AI tools like ChatGPT do not function as libraries. Instead, they are trained on large volumes of user-generated content and generate text by predicting one word at a time based on patterns in human language.

“AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on,” she emphasised, warning of the inherent biases and inaccuracies present in online data.

Practical Applications in Education

Despite these concerns, Dr. Huang highlighted several productive uses for AI in nursing education:

• Curriculum design
• Modifying content for varying needs
• Enhancing student engagement
• Generating content and ideas
• Creating quizzes, case studies, and podcasts
• Assessing and critiquing quality & accuracy of content

She introduced various different AI tools and the RICCE Framework, a practical guide for prompt engineering that helps educators optimize AI outputs.

The Takeaway: “The Onus Is on You”

Attendees left the session excited by AI’s potential, but mindful of the risks: the quality of AI-generated resources depends heavily on the user. Educators must remain critical and intentional in their use of AI tools.

2024 Children’s Nursing Training Observatory Report

In addition to the AI presentation, Clare Davis, Education Programme Manager at the Children’s Nursing Development Unit, shared the findings of the 2024 Children’s Nursing Training Observatory. The report provided a overview of where across the African continent children’s nursing training is currently taking place—including emerging programmes and student throughput data.

The Forum concluded with a sense of both excitement and apprehension, as members continue to navigate the evolving role of AI in nursing education.