DNP acute care student Alexis Murray—who received her doctoral degree from UTC in May 2026—talks with a patient’s daughter during an AI simulation. Photo by Angela Foster.
Two University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Nursing faculty members recently shared their work on AI-assisted simulation with an international audience, leading a webinar on how the technology can help prepare graduate nurse practitioner students for difficult conversations in palliative care.
Dr. Chris Doneski, director of UTC’s acute care nurse practitioner program and a simulation faculty member, and Dr. Rosebelle Peters, nursing simulation program director and senior lecturer, presented “Prepare Graduate Nurse Practitioners for Difficult Conversations with AI Palliative Simulations” through HealthySimulation.com.
HealthySimulation is a leading healthcare simulation resource that reaches more than 60,000 people each month. Doneski said more than 100 people attended the live webinar, and a recording is available through free registration.
Palliative care focuses on easing symptoms, stress and other challenges associated with serious illness. It often includes difficult conversations about a patient’s goals, quality of life and care options, making communication training especially important for future nurse practitioners.
For Doneski and Peters, the webinar was a chance to share work already happening at UTC while also putting the College of Nursing in front of a broader professional audience.
“Our number one goal is to provide education and safe learning to the students, and we also want to display what we do here at the College,” Doneski said.
The webinar opportunity grew out of earlier conversations about AI in nursing education. Peters said she attended a HealthySimulation webinar focused on AI and mentioned that UTC was already using it in graduate programs. That led to an invitation to present and build on UTC’s earlier AI simulation work, which used the technology to help nursing students navigate difficult conversations with patients and their families.
“We had already started providing education and lectures to faculty here about incorporating AI,” Doneski said.
Peters put it more simply: “Chris had already been presenting. We just made it more comprehensive.”
The session was aimed at beginners, but the audience stretched well beyond that. Doneski said participants included people with a wide range of experience in simulation, from those just getting started to professionals already running simulation centers. Attendees also joined from outside the United States, including Canada and countries across Europe and Asia.
Dr. Chris Doneski, director of UTC’s acute care nurse practitioner program and a simulation faculty member, and Dr. Rosebelle Peters, nursing simulation program director and senior lecturer.
The presentation centered on a gap the two faculty members see in graduate nursing education.
Doneski said students often receive training in procedures, prescribing and transition to practice, but communication training for difficult situations can be harder to build in meaningful ways.
“A lot of the research is on comfort with procedures, prescribing and the transition to practice,” he said. “There wasn’t really a lot out there from a graduate nurse practitioner student standpoint on training and communication.”
That matters in palliative care, where future nurse practitioners may need to answer hard questions, respond to anxiety and uncertainty, and guide patients and families through emotionally difficult discussions.
At UTC, Doneski explained, generative AI is used to create voice-enabled patient interactions that respond in real time to students’ input. Instead of relying only on case studies or classroom discussion, students can practice through a scenario that changes based on their responses, with the technology generating replies based on the character created for the simulation while keeping the same core subject matter.
He said there are guardrails in place to keep scenarios from drifting too far off course, but the technology’s conversational nature allows students to have a more realistic exchange.
Doneski said one of the webinar’s main points was that this kind of simulation can be built at a beginner level without a major investment of money or staffing. Programs without patient actors, larger simulation teams or extra faculty support can still create communication-focused experiences for students.
Peters said that practicality has helped make the approach attractive.
“It’s not high cost,” she said, “so sustainability is there.”
She also said the work reflects a larger approach within UTC’s College of Nursing. Rather than depending on prepackaged scenarios, Peters said faculty build simulations around the needs they see in their own programs.
“We don’t use pre-program simulations,” she said. “We write them from scratch based on the gaps analysis or needs analysis that we do.”
That has allowed the College to tailor simulations to specific learning outcomes while continuing to revise and improve them over time. Faculty can adjust scenarios, refine prompts and build on the experience as the technology evolves.
Dr. Chris Doneski and Alexis Murray during the AI simulation.
Both Peters and Doneski said the use of AI in simulation has continued to expand at UTC. Doneski said interest has grown among other faculty members since his earlier pilot work, including in areas beyond acute care and palliative conversations. He said that includes work tied to the College’s psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program, where difficult conversations are also central.
For Peters, the value extends well beyond palliative care.
“The difficult conversations are not just being had in palliative or hospice,” she said. “It’s across the healthcare system.”
That is why simulation matters, she said. Students may encounter death, grief, fear, reluctance or other emotionally charged situations in many clinical settings. Giving them repeated exposure in a safe environment can help them build confidence before facing those moments in practice.
“When you give them these tools and continue to expose them to these conversations in a safe space, that gives both the learners and the instructors or the facilitators feedback instantly,” Peters said.
“Simulation builds confidence. When a nurse is confident or a nursing student is confident, they’re going to perform versus hesitate.”
The recorded webinar is available through HealthySimulation.com. Users must register for a free account to view it.
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