How Does Artificial Intelligence Align With Person-Centred Principles in Mental Health Nursing? A Scoping Review.
Carmel Bond, Adrianna Lorraine Watson, Graeme D Smith and 2 others
PMID 42272064WHAT IT FOUND
AI may support mental health nursing by expanding access, monitoring symptoms and safety checks, but it cannot replace empathy, trust and shared decisions.
Nurses must keep oversight and co-design.
Key findings
01AI may support access, symptom monitoring and patient narratives, but the included studies position it as a tool that cannot independently sustain therapeutic relationships.
02AI-assisted night observations and risk prediction were described as supporting safety and lowering routine workload, while nurses remain central to interpreting outputs and providing ethical oversight.
03Trust, transparency and privacy were central themes, and the review found that AI used for continuous monitoring raised concerns about surveillance and erosion of therapeutic relationships.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, not a trial, so it maps what exists rather than proving that AI works. The review did not formally appraise study quality, so the certainty of individual findings is uncertain. The included studies had very different designs, populations and AI tools, making direct comparison difficult. Some qualitative studies used small samples, so their themes may not transfer widely. The search was targeted at nursing databases and may have missed relevant AI literature outside nursing.
Declared interests
The authors report no funding and no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that AI improves mental health nursing outcomes. It is a scoping review of very different studies, many small or varied in design, and its main finding is that AI should support rather than replace nurses.