Surgical nurses’ artificial intelligence literacy and readiness levels for medical artificial intelligence

This study aims to analyse the correlation between surgical unit nurses’ artificial intelligence literacy levels and their medical artificial intelligence readiness. The study was descriptive, exploratory, and cross-sectional, and was conducted in Turkey with 339 nurses who were currently working in surgical units between June 2024 and June 2025. Online data collection via Google Forms was used, employing the Descriptive Characteristics Questionnaire, Artificial Intelligence Literacy Scale, and Medical Artificial Intelligence Readiness Scale. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software with descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman correlation tests. The mean age of the nurses was 34.35 ± 9.37; 85.5% were female. According to data, 85.5% of the participants heard of the term artificial intelligence at some point, while 73.2% indicated AI will also help the nursing profession. A large and strong positive correlation exists between AI literacy and readiness for medical AI (rₛ = 0.642, p < 0.001). At the subscale level, readiness was also found to be significantly correlated with technical understanding (rₛ = 0.606), critical evaluation (rₛ = 0.672), and practical application (rₛ = 0.558) (all p < 0.001). The research indicates that with the increase in nurses’ literacy level regarding artificial intelligence, the readiness for the medical application of artificial intelligence also increases. Education and awareness initiatives aimed at developing artificial intelligence literacy are recommended to support the effective and safe use of AI-based technologies in nursing practice.