Training Tomorrow’s Healthcare Workforce: Why Higher Ed Must Rethink the Nursing Student Experience

Shirin Khosravian

The Urgency of Healthcare Education in the U.S.

The U.S. healthcare system is under extraordinary pressure. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, more than 250,000 students are enrolled in nursing programs annually, but demand continues to outpace supply. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, and the need for allied health professionals, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, and others is accelerating.

Higher education plays a critical role in preparing this workforce. Every student who graduates represents another professional entering hospitals, clinics, and communities where the need is urgent. Supporting nursing students isn’t just about helping them complete a degree, it’s about strengthening the healthcare system and improving patient care.

The Nursing Student Persona: Balancing Work, Study, and Life

Nursing students bring a unique profile compared to many undergraduates. They are often working in healthcare positions while earning their degree, gaining hands-on experience while also juggling coursework and clinical rotations. These jobs frequently involve night shifts, weekend hours, or unpredictable schedules.

For students, this means flexibility and accessibility are non-negotiable. A nursing student may finish a night shift at 6 a.m. and immediately need access to their university portal for clinical scheduling. Others may have long stretches without access to technology during work hours, which makes it even more important that when they do log in, they can resolve issues quickly and efficiently. They may need quick answers to financial aid questions late at night, or personalized reminders about upcoming exams and competencies.

Rather than seeing this as a barrier, institutions can view it as an opportunity to design deeply personalized, student-centered experiences that acknowledge the realities of nursing education.

What Nursing Students Need

While all students benefit from strong advising and support, nursing and other healthcare students have additional, highly specialized needs:

Clinical and lab scheduling: Unlike general education courses, nursing programs require precise scheduling across labs, skills check-offs, and hospital rotations. These activities often involve multiple external systems and manual coordination.
Practicums and placements: Securing and managing clinical placements can be stressful. Students need clear updates, visibility into options, and streamlined processes, yet universities often lack seamless integration with hospital partners.
Credentialing and licensure preparation: Nursing students must track certifications, exam requirements, and state licensure processes—administrative steps that can easily become overwhelming without strong institutional support.
Wellness and resilience: Because of the dual demands of work and study, nursing students are at greater risk of burnout. They need institutions to be proactive in offering wellness resources and nudges, not just reactive when challenges appear.

For universities, these needs often expose gaps between siloed systems. A clinical placement database may not talk to the CRM, while advising notes may live separately from the learning management system. This creates unnecessary friction for both staff and students. With integrated platforms and AI, institutions can close these gaps and deliver the cohesive, personalized support nursing students need to thrive.

Innovative Solutions: How AI Can Transform Healthcare Education

The opportunity in nursing education isn’t just to answer student questions faster, it’s to reimagine how programs are delivered and supported. With Salesforce AI solutions like Agentforce, Einstein, and Data Cloud, universities can move beyond incremental improvements and create breakthrough experiences for both students and staff.

Agentforce for always-on student support: Nursing students often need help at nontraditional hours. Agentforce can answer common questions about clinical schedules, lab requirements, or financial aid deadlines 24/7, and hand off complex cases to staff with full context intact.
AI-Powered Clinical Placement Matching: One of the hardest challenges in nursing education is assigning students to clinical sites. Instead of manual spreadsheets, AI can analyze student progress, location preferences, site availability, and hospital workforce needs to recommend optimized matches. This reduces administrative headaches while ensuring students get timely, relevant placements.
Simulation Debrief Summaries: Nursing programs rely heavily on simulations to prepare students for real-world scenarios. AI can automatically summarize simulation sessions, highlighting where students performed well and where they struggled, so faculty spend less time writing reports and more time mentoring. Students get faster, personalized feedback that accelerates their learning.
Einstein for staff efficiency: AI-generated case summaries, next-best-action recommendations, and intelligent routing reduce administrative load and help advisors respond with speed and empathy. Instead of combing through fragmented notes, staff can focus on guiding students toward success.
Credentialing Dashboards with Data Cloud: Tracking progress toward licensure is complex; clinical hours, competencies, certifications, and exams all need to line up. AI can assemble these data points into dynamic dashboards, proactively flagging when a student risks falling behind. This gives both staff and students confidence that nothing will slip through the cracks.
Proactive Wellness Nudges: Nursing students face high stress and risk of burnout. AI can analyze patterns, missed assignments, declining engagement, irregular login activity, and trigger personalized nudges to connect students with tutoring, advising, or wellness resources before issues escalate.

Together, these solutions create an ecosystem where students feel supported in every aspect of their journey, and staff are empowered with the insights and tools to be more responsive, personalized, and proactive. This is not about replacing human connection, it’s about giving both students and staff the capacity to thrive.

From Student Success to Patient Impact

The benefits of AI-enabled student support extend beyond graduation. Every nursing student who successfully completes their program and enters the workforce helps reduce hospital staffing shortages and improves patient access to care. By equipping nursing students with timely support, universities are directly contributing to stronger healthcare systems and healthier communities.

This is why higher education leaders should view AI not only as a technology initiative, but as a strategic lever for workforce readiness and public health impact.

A Framework for Universities: Preparing for Agentic AI in Nursing Education

To seize this opportunity, institutions should start with a simple, actionable framework:

Understand the Nursing Student Journey
Map the unique path nursing students take, from pre-admission through clinical rotations to licensure. Document the critical milestones, systems they engage with, and the staff roles that support them.
Identify Friction Points
Pinpoint where students struggle most, whether it’s navigating placement assignments, tracking credentialing requirements, or balancing coursework with odd-hour jobs. These are the areas where AI can have the biggest impact.
Define Desired Outcomes
Clarify what success looks like, not just in terms of graduation rates, but in student experience, staff capacity, and readiness for licensure exams. Consider how you want students to feel at each stage—empowered, supported, and connected.
Deploy Agentic AI Thoughtfully
Leverage Agentforce and Einstein to provide always-on, personalized support. Use Data Cloud to integrate siloed systems and ensure staff have a single source of truth. Apply predictive analytics to anticipate demand and resource needs.
Iterate and Personalize
AI in higher ed is not static. Continuously test, monitor, and refine how agents interact with students. Use bias testing, conversation design, and human-in-the-loop governance to ensure AI reflects the institution’s values and student diversity.

With Agentic AI, there are countless opportunities to improve the end-to-end nursing student experience in a deeply personalized way. From enrollment to licensure, universities can transform friction into empowerment, supporting students in their journey to becoming the healthcare professionals our communities urgently need.

Nursing education sits at the crossroads of higher ed and healthcare, carrying immense responsibility for the nation’s well-being. By embracing Salesforce AI, universities can not only improve student success but also strengthen the healthcare workforce pipeline. The time to act is now, because when nursing students succeed, patients everywhere benefit.

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