Health
Expert advocates AI adoption in nursing to improve patient safety
Janet Ogundepo
A nursing and healthcare technology expert, Taiwo Dada, has called for stronger integration of nursing expertise, clinical data, and responsible artificial intelligence to improve patient safety and healthcare delivery.
The healthcare technology researcher said the growing digitalisation of healthcare presents significant opportunities to help nurses improve patient safety.
This, she said, would help nurses identify patient risks earlier, improve clinical prioritisation, strengthen care coordination, and reduce information gaps across healthcare workflows.
Dada, whose work focuses on AI-Enabled Nursing Care Quality and Patient Safety Informatics, said, “Technology has enormous potential in healthcare, but its real value is determined by what happens at the point of care.
“We need systems that help nurses recognise important changes earlier, prioritise risks appropriately, and ensure critical information leads to timely clinical action.”
Dada said these had become imperative due to fragmented clinical information and the difficulty of maintaining continuity as patients move between nurses, shifts, departments, and care settings.
She further noted that effective healthcare transformation depends on integrating technology, data, and appropriate governance rather than treating them as separate functions.
Dada stressed that healthcare organisations must ensure that AI implementation remains closely connected to clinical workflows and professional judgment.
“Artificial intelligence should support the nurse, not distance technology from the realities of patient care.
“When clinical data, nursing judgment, and intelligent systems work together, we have a stronger opportunity to recognise risks earlier and protect patients,” she said.
She further emphasised the importance of continuous professional development as healthcare becomes increasingly data-driven, noting that nurses must be equipped to understand how emerging technologies influence clinical decision-making, documentation, patient safety, and accountability.
Drawing from her clinical nursing experience in the United States and Nigeria, Dada’s research work focuses on how AI and healthcare informatics can strengthen the information-intensive responsibilities performed by nurses, including patient assessment, risk recognition, documentation, escalation, handoffs, and interdisciplinary coordination.
Dada has also conducted research into predicting hospital-acquired infection risk by integrating nursing assessments, patient-care activities, and longitudinal electronic health record data.
Through her work, she identifies the need for nursing-generated information to be treated not simply as clinical documentation, but as a valuable source of intelligence for identifying emerging patient risks.
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