A version of this story first appeared in the 2025 issue of On Call, a publication of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Nursing.
Photo by Angela Foster
Laurel Rhyne remembers the very first time she heard about generative artificial intelligence.
It was December 18, 2022. She was listening to a National Public Radio story in her car while crossing the Market Street Bridge.
“The focus was all on plagiarism and what it was going to do for higher ed,” explained Rhyne, an associate lecturer in the UTC College of Nursing. “What I saw was so much more.
“Our whole world is going to change.”
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Much of Rhyne’s instruction revolves around teaching critical care, palliative care and leadership, all topics in which AI can be incorporated.
“What I’ve been really focused on is helping students to understand different ways to approach it from study techniques and how they can interface with it in non-scary ways,” she said. “I also teach a class during their leadership that goes through the history of AI and what some of the exciting things are in health care that are going to be coming—and also some of the scary things that might happen.”
That’s right. Rhyne said AI isn’t without risks.
What scares her the most?
“The fact that AI may become sentient,” she said, adding that algorithms are already teaching themselves and finding their own mistakes.
She noted that environmental impact and algorithm bias are also growing concerns.
“I’m excited for the safety aspects of it,” Rhyne said about AI. “There’s human error in medicine and this will take out some of that. I’m not excited about the bias that’s there, and the bias is real.”
A lot of her students are hesitant about the technology as well, she said.
When she asks students if they use AI, most admit they’ve only used it to make study guides. Rhyne sees that as an opportunity.
“My focus is to help them have a safe interface because they’re very afraid of it,” she said. “They are not early adopters in technology. That’s not their gig.”
Rhyne said she sees enormous potential for AI to ease some of the biggest challenges in nursing.
“We don’t have as many providers coming out. We don’t have enough nurses,” she said. “I think using AI in workflow will bridge some of that gap that we are never going to fill.”
She’s especially hopeful about emerging tools like ambient listening systems, which are already being tested in hospitals.
“They’re actually starting to build it into the walls,” Rhyne said. “Instead of us having to chart and document and do all the things, it is listening and picking up and understanding those components that need to go into documentation.”
That shift could reduce burnout, she said, freeing nurses to spend more time with patients.
It’s even helping them build empathy.
“They can see how their response is not good and they can learn it in the classroom,” she said. “Getting that feedback, seeing it for themselves and being able to adjust—what an incredible gift for the patients they’ll care for in those difficult moments.”
DNP Clinical Assistant Professor Chris Doneski and HAL® S5301, an AI-powered manikin.
While Rhyne introduces undergraduates to AI as a concept, Clinical Assistant Professor Chris Doneski brings AI to life in UTC’s graduate nursing curriculum.
When he arrived on campus two years ago, simulation was already part of the acute care nurse practitioner program. Drawing from his doctoral research on using simulation with nursing residents, Doneski began expanding the role of technology.
He credited a presentation at the Tennessee Simulation Alliance conference that sparked some ideas. The speaker demonstrated how an AI program could act as a pediatric oncology patient and parent, helping students practice with sensitive communication.
“That’s where the idea really started to grow,” Doneski said.
Since then, AI has become an essential tool in simulation at UTC.
HAL® S5301
HAL® S5301—a Gaumard-produced manikin described as the world’s most advanced interdisciplinary patient simulator—uses custom software designed by Doneski to “interact” with the student nurses.
In one scenario, it took the form of a patient with chest pain.
“They go in, have a conversation, they assess, and through the AI program, they’re able to hold conversations just like you would with a regular patient,” Doneski explained.
Then, the students move on to procedural simulations where the “patient” suddenly deteriorates and requires intubation.
The AI evaluates whether students place the breathing tube correctly, monitors depth, and provides proper ventilation. When a procedure causes a complication, the AI adjusts the manikin’s lung function to mimic the problem, forcing students to intervene.
“Health care every year becomes more complex,” Doneski said. “Patients are living longer, they’re becoming sicker. Utilizing AI can help as far as helping their clinical acumen and keeping them comfortable with stuff that they’ve already used.”
The technology, he said, aligns with what students are seeing in hospitals. Some radiology departments use AI programs to quickly scan CT images for brain bleeds or blood clots. By the time UTC nursing students graduate, many will be working alongside AI in the workforce.
Doneski said the results are noticeable.
“AI is here whether we like it or not,” he said. “Students are already using it to study or get suggestions, so having it in simulation makes the experience more familiar. Seeing that fit into place with the simulations they’re doing lends a bit of familiarity.”
Rhyne said her goal is to make sure students see themselves as part of the conversation about where AI is headed in health care.
“I have a healthy fear with an understanding that this is our life and it will continue to impact and grow,” Rhyne said. “We have to grow with it. If you don’t have a fear and aren’t learning about it, you won’t know where those guardrails have to come up.
“Health care is going to be the most altered discipline of everything out there. You better know it so that you can have a seat at the table. Who better to be at that table than us?”
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