Start with actual workflows.
We interviewed four nursing PhD students about how they use and avoid AI. Their experiences revealed a distinction between help with routine tasks and outsourcing the thinking that makes research meaningful.
07 / AI in Nursing Research
Useful AI.
Human judgment.
Understand where AI assistance fits into nursing research—and where it should stop.
- My contribution
- UX researcher. Collaborative qualitative analysis, synthesis, and recommendations.
- Team context
- Four UW researchers.
- Stage
- Qualitative study
- Delivered
- Research report, shared codebook, and design recommendations.
Research process / reconstructed
- ListenFour hour-long interviews.
- CodeIndependent first-pass analysis.
- CompareA shared codebook and themes.
- RecommendHuman-centered AI support.
Nursing PhD research workflows, not a clinical trial.
Key decisions.
Compare interpretations.
All four researchers independently extracted keywords before comparing clusters and building a shared codebook. This made differences in interpretation visible during synthesis.
Protect human judgment.
Privacy, ethical boundaries, and empathy shaped our recommendations: clearer data-handling information, adaptable assistance, and guardrails that keep researchers in control.
Outcome & next step.
Translated four researchers’ experiences into three themes and a proposed direction for more responsible AI support.