AI Enabled Nursing: Moving From Virtual Support to Intelligent Care Redesign
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30953/thmt.v11.669Keywords:
Off-load bedside nursing, patient throughput, RN satisfaction, virtual nursing, workflowAbstract
Virtual nursing has become a critical strategy for health systems in 2025, extending clinical capacity, mitigating burnout, and improving patient throughput. These programs typically focus on “off-loading” bedside nurses by deploying experienced virtual nurses to manage admissions, discharges, monitoring, patient education, and staff mentoring. These programs aim to create gains in efficiency and RN satisfaction, yet they lack the ability to prove hard ROI and focus on offloading rather than redesigning workflow.
The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) creates the opportunity to move beyond these limitations. This paper outlines the transition from task-based virtual nursing to intelligent, AI-driven models that optimize outcomes and workforce sustainability. All of this while still keeping the nurse at the center of patient care, and reimagining a sustainable workforce of the future. To truly evolve nursing, we must integrate intelligence into every workflow, not just relocate the workload.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Linda Lockwood RN, MBA, Erika Rolland, MSN, RN, RN-BC, CAVRN, Dominick Pahl, MS, RN, Sarah Bell, RN, MSN, MHA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Telehealth and Medicine Today (THMT).
THMT is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
