SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
This article is part of the Research TopicAI in Public Health Teaching and Education: Current Trends and Future OutlookView all 6 articles
AI Literacy and Competency in Nursing Education: Preparing Students and Faculty Members for an AI-Enabled Future-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qatar University College of Nursing, Doha, Qatar
- 2University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan
- 3Santosh University, Ghaziabad, India
- 4Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
- 5Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made its way into every dimension of human life, and its impact is significant and multifaceted. Specifically, the effect of AI in nursing education has reshaped the healthcare system. However, this technological shift in nursing and the healthcare system still needs to be evaluated in multiple aspects to ensure the effective use of AI and to prepare future professionals. This PROSPERO-registered systematic literature review and meta-analysis explored the integration of AI literacy and competency within nursing curricula and the profession globally from January 2020 to June 2025. The study specifically aimed to: (1) examine the extent of AI integration within nursing curricula; (2) assess the awareness, attitudes, and readiness of nursing students, faculty, and practitioners toward AI; (3) evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions designed to enhance AI literacy and competency; (4) identify ethical, institutional, and pedagogical challenges associated with AI adoption in nursing education; and (5) provide evidence-based recommendations for standardized and equitable AI education frameworks in nursing. It synthesizes evidence from 111 peer-reviewed articles, including 18 distinct quantitative studies, which have been further analyzed through meta-analytic techniques. PRISMA guidelines were followed to search for relevant articles and extract the required information. Meta-analysis reveals high levels of AI-related awareness (pooled estimate = 73%, 95% CI: 64%–80%) and positive attitudes (71%, 95% CI: 63%–78%) among various nursing groups. The implementation of AI-related skills remains highly variable (67%, 95% CI: 55%–78%), especially in low-resource settings, which needs careful interpretation. Overall, meta-analysis findings highlight significant variations and reflect non-uniformity and disparities across regions, institutions, and nursing groups (students, staff, faculty). Thematic synthesis underscores the need for standardized AI education, tailored faculty development, and equitable access to digital tools. Although individual-level awareness and attitudes toward AI are promising, this review reveals a lack of institutional readiness, with many nursing programs lacking standardized curricula, faculty training, and infrastructural support. Moreover, findings emphasize the critical need for broader institutional and policy efforts to match individual enthusiasm with institutional capacity in preparing nurses for an AI-enabled healthcare landscape.
Keywords: AI Literacy and Competency, Nursing Curriculum Integration, Faculty Readiness, ethical and institutional challenges, Systematic Literature Review, Meta-analysis, AI Competence in Healthcare
Received: 26 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 El-Banna, Sajid, Rizvi, Sami and McNelis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Waqas Sami, waqas@qu.edu.qa
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