ChartFlow Team
The world of education is buzzing with AI — Are students plagiarizing? Did a computer write that essay? How do we prevent AI ‘help’ during remote lectures and exams?
But while we’re focused on how students may be abusing new technology, we’ve forgotten to imagine all the ways instructors can use AI to their benefit. Below we’ve included some ChatGPT prompts that we found particularly useful, but we’d also love to hear any ways you’ve worked AI into your planning time, lessons, or simulations.
Scenario creation:
If you work in a sim lab or skills center, it’s always a challenge to come up with patient scenarios. It’s even harder if you’re responsible for creating patients in your school’s academic EHR system (if you have ChartFlow.io, we have patient templates you can choose from in addition to creating your own). However, ChatGPT can help build out your patient library! We found that if we use the prompts below, AI can create a great starting scenario. You still have to understand what lab values and narrative notes should sound like so you can edit them, but think of this as a project you gave to a student. They created a bunch of patient scenarios and now all you have to do is clean them up.
Prompt: I am practicing reading medical notes. Can you create an example narrative note about a patient [insert description example: who needs antibiotics for c. diff]? Please include vital signs and lab findings.
Date and Time: [Current Date and Time]
Patient Information:
- Name: John Doe
- Age: 62
- Gender: Male
- Medical Record Number: 12345
- Room: 205
- Diagnosis: Clostridium difficile infection
Clinical Presentation: Mr. Doe, a 62-year-old male, was admitted with complaints of profuse diarrhea, crampy abdominal pain, and low-grade fever. He reported having experienced these symptoms for the past two days. Upon assessment, he had loose, foul-smelling stools and abdominal tenderness. He was immediately placed on contact isolation precautions due to suspected C. difficile infection.
Vital Signs:
- Temperature: 100.8°F (oral)
- Heart Rate: 94 bpm
- Blood Pressure: 130/80 mmHg
- Respiratory Rate: 18 breaths per minute
- Oxygen Saturation: 98% on room air
Laboratory Findings:
- Stool Cultures: Positive for C. difficile toxins
- Complete Blood Count (CBC): Within normal limits
- White Blood Cell Count (WBC): 10,000/mm³
- Hemoglobin: 13.5 g/dL
- Platelet Count: 220,000/mm³
- Electrolytes: Within normal limits
- Sodium: 140 mEq/L
- Potassium: 4.2 mEq/L
- Chloride: 102 mEq/L
- Creatinine: 1.0 mg/dL
- BUN: 20 mg/dL
Antibiotic Regimen:
- Consultation with Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Smith confirmed the diagnosis of C. difficile infection.
- The patient has been prescribed oral vancomycin 125 mg every 6 hours for a total of 10 days.
Response to Treatment:
- Mr. Doe received his first dose of vancomycin at 10:00 AM.
- Nursing staff educated the patient and family on medication administration, adherence, and potential side effects.
- Stool frequency has decreased from 10 episodes per day to 4 episodes in the past 24 hours.
- Abdominal pain has improved, and the patient reports feeling less fatigued.
Collaborative Care:
- Regular communication with the infectious disease team to monitor the patient's response to treatment.
- Reinforced infection prevention measures, including proper hand hygiene and contact precautions.
Plan:
- Continue monitoring vital signs, stool frequency, and abdominal pain.
- Administer subsequent doses of vancomycin as prescribed.
- Provide patient and family education on infection control and proper hand hygiene.
- Collaborate with healthcare team for potential adjustments to the treatment plan based on clinical progress.
Discharge Planning:
- Discharge planning will be discussed based on the patient's clinical improvement and completion of the antibiotic course.
Nurse's Name and Credentials: Jane Smith, RN
Teaching documentation in the classroom
Because ChatGPT and other AI tools are not designed for medical charting, there will be errors, weird wording, and omissions in imagined scenario notes. One thing you can do is request nursing notes for various patient scenarios and find ones that demonstrate common charting errors (using incorrect abbreviations, for example). Then share the notes in the classroom on a SMART board or projector. As a class, have everyone silently read the note and then discuss what was written well and what was incorrectly documented. Was anything left out that could lead to legal issues in the future? By externalizing the critique by using AI notes rather than a student’s own notes, it makes it easier for students to critically analyze and discuss any flaws in the documentation. This review can help your class avoid similar mistakes when they do their own charting in the future.
Side note: When requesting a narrative note from AI, the note I got back seemed to include more text and more fields than I was originally looking for with a simple narrative note, but this could be a good crossover for patient scenario creation and note review.
Prompt: Write a narrative note as a nurse for a stroke patient with [insert problem, example: left sided paralysis]. The nurse [insert actions, example: bathed the patient, passed medications, and measured I&Os].
Date and Time: [Current Date and Time]
Patient Information:
- Name: Mary Johnson
- Age: 68
- Gender: Female
- Medical Record Number: 67890
- Room: 302
- Diagnosis: Ischemic Stroke, Left-Sided Paralysis
Clinical Presentation: Ms. Johnson, a 68-year-old female, presented with an ischemic stroke affecting the right side of her brain, resulting in left-sided paralysis. She is currently alert and oriented, but has difficulty with mobility and self-care activities due to her left-sided weakness.
Nursing Interventions:
- Bathing: At 10:00 AM, assisted Ms. Johnson with a partial bed bath. Due to her left-sided paralysis, provided assistance with bathing the right side of her body, ensuring thorough cleansing and maintenance of skin integrity. Applied lotion to prevent dryness and provided oral hygiene.
- Medications: Administered morning medications at 8:00 AM as ordered. Medications included:
- Aspirin 81 mg (antiplatelet)
- Atorvastatin 20 mg (lipid-lowering)
- Lisinopril 10 mg (antihypertensive)
- Intake and Output Monitoring (I&Os): Monitored Ms. Johnson's fluid intake and output throughout the shift to ensure adequate hydration and renal function. Documented all intake and output accurately:
- Intake: 1000 mL oral fluids, 500 mL IV fluids
- Output: 600 mL urine, 150 mL watery stool
Vital Signs:
- Blood Pressure: 130/80 mmHg
- Heart Rate: 76 bpm
- Respiratory Rate: 18 breaths per minute
- Oxygen Saturation: 97% on room air
- Temperature: 98.6°F (oral)
Response to Interventions:
- Ms. Johnson tolerated the partial bed bath well, expressed appreciation for the assistance, and showed engagement during oral hygiene.
- Medications were administered without any adverse reactions reported. Patient's blood pressure remained stable within target range.
- Intake and output were within acceptable limits, and urine output was noted to be improving.
Collaborative Care:
- Collaborated with physical therapy for scheduled mobility exercises to prevent complications related to immobility and to improve range of motion in her left side.
- Communicated with the healthcare team to address any concerns related to medication interactions or potential side effects.
Patient and Family Education:
- Educated Ms. Johnson and her family on proper positioning to prevent skin breakdown and on the importance of consistent physical therapy for optimal recovery.
- Provided information about the prescribed medications, including their purposes and potential side effects.
Plan:
- Continue providing assistance with activities of daily living to ensure patient comfort and hygiene.
- Administer evening medications as ordered.
- Monitor vital signs and response to interventions.
- Collaborate with the interdisciplinary team to promote patient's recovery and safe rehabilitation.
Nurse's Name and Credentials: [Your Name and Credentials]
Idea generation for analogies and examples
One of my favorite nursing instructors used to use an example from the tv show ER to demonstrate a complicated med-surg concept. It was a huge hit for years until she started getting more and more students who had no cultural frame of reference for such an old show. If you find yourself using outdated songs for CPR timing or jokes about phones with cords, it might be time to refresh your lecture analogy/example bank. AI tools are nowhere near the point they can teach a topic on their own, but they can give you some great ideas to start with. In the example below you can see how the description may not be perfect, but some of the terminology and concepts could be used to refresh your spiel.
Prompt: Explain the mechanism of action of [insert medication, example: ACE inhibitors] in a way that even a middle school student could understand.
Now, sometimes, the "kidney control center" gets a message to tighten up and hold onto more water and salt. This can happen when the city thinks there's not enough blood flowing around. But, if it happens too much, it can make your blood pressure go too high.
Here's where ACE inhibitors come in! They're like special messengers that tell the "kidney control center" to relax and let go of some water and salt. When the "kidney control center" listens to these messengers, it helps to lower the pressure in your blood vessels. This can be really helpful for people who have high blood pressure or heart problems, because it makes their hearts' job easier.
So, in simple words, ACE inhibitors are like helpful notes that tell the "kidney control center" to be a bit more relaxed, which helps to bring down high blood pressure and make the heart work better.
While none of these prompts are going to revolutionize nursing education, they might make your job a little less time consuming, and sometimes that’s enough. 👩🏫
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