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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Healthcare organizations are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming one of the tools available to nurse leaders. Yet I am noticing a troubling gap. Organizations are buying the technology, but many frontline managers receive little practical training on how to incorporate it into their daily work.

A nurse manager may have access to Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel but still spend hours every week responding to emails, preparing meeting agendas, reviewing schedules, and developing reports. The technology is available, but few leaders are using it to improve their workflow. This is a missed opportunity, especially when nurse managers are overwhelmed by administrative responsibilities and struggle to find enough time for their staff.

Giving Back Time to Nurse Managers

Consider how much of a typical nurse manager’s day is spent on activities that don’t require their unique leadership expertise. They read lengthy email chains, search for information, prepare agendas, document meetings, organize calendars, draft routine communications, and develop reports. These activities are necessary, but AI can make many of them more efficient. Microsoft 365 Copilot is especially promising because it works within applications many nurse managers already use. Here are seven practical applications that I believe every nurse manager should learn:

1. Managing Email

Nurse managers receive numerous emails daily. Important communications become buried among routine announcements, meeting invitations, and long reply-all conversations. Copilot in Outlook can help managers summarize email threads, identify key points, draft responses, and improve message clarity and tone. Teach managers how to use the following prompts to help with their work:

• “Summarize the important emails I received in the past 24 hours. Identify which require my response or action.”
• “Summarize this email thread and identify the decisions made, unresolved questions, and next steps.”
• “Draft a professional, supportive response to this employee’s concern. Keep it concise and avoid sounding defensive.”
• “Rewrite this email so that my expectations are clear, respectful, and actionable.”

Imagine a nurse manager returning from three days off. Instead of spending the first hour sorting through messages, the manager could use Copilot to identify priority communications and begin responding more efficiently.

2. Managing the Leader’s Calendar

Many nurse managers have calendars filled with meetings, leaving little time for rounding, coaching, or simply being visible on their units. Copilot can help managers review calendar commitments, prepare for meetings, and, in supported versions, schedule meetings or protect focus time. Teach nurse managers how to use these prompts to more effectively manage their calendars:

• Review my calendar for next week. Identify days with back-to-back meetings and opportunities for uninterrupted leadership work.
• “Help me identify two 60-minute blocks this week for staff rounding and coaching.”
• “Prepare me for tomorrow’s staffing meeting by summarizing relevant emails, previous decisions, and outstanding action items.”
• “Review my upcoming meetings and help me identify which may need an agenda, a shorter duration, or a different format.”

One of the most important questions a nurse manager can ask is: Does my calendar reflect my leadership priorities? AI can help identify how time is being allocated, but the manager must decide what deserves that time.

3. Making Meetings More Productive

Nurse managers spend significant time in meetings and often leave with additional follow-up work. When organizational policy allows, Copilot in Microsoft Teams can summarize meeting discussions, identify decisions, and capture action items. Teach the nurse manager how to use these prompts in Teams:

• “Summarize the three most important decisions made during this meeting.”
• “Identify action items, responsible individuals, and deadlines discussed.”
• “What questions were raised that we did not resolve?”
• “Draft a brief follow-up message summarizing our agreements and next steps.”

Consider a nurse manager who conducts a monthly staff meeting. Instead of spending another 30 minutes preparing notes afterward, the manager could review a Copilot-generated summary, correct any errors, and distribute an action-oriented follow-up. This creates an opportunity to improve accountability while reducing documentation time.

4. Writing Communications to Staff

Nurse managers regularly communicate about practice changes, staffing processes, educational requirements, recognition, and performance expectations. Writing these messages takes time, particularly when the topic is sensitive or likely to create resistance. Copilot can help create an initial draft and adjust the tone. Teach the managers how to use these prompts in Word or Outlook:

• “Draft a positive, professional message thanking staff for their flexibility during a difficult staffing week.”
• “Help me explain a new bedside shift report expectation. Emphasize patient safety, explain why the change is important, and acknowledge that staff may have concerns.”
• “Rewrite this announcement using plain language and a supportive tone.”
• “Create three talking points I can use during a staff huddle to explain an upcoming workflow change.”

AI does not replace authentic leadership communication. It can, however, help managers communicate more clearly and spend less time staring at a blank screen.

5. Preparing Reports and Understanding Data

Nurse managers are expected to monitor quality, staffing, productivity, turnover, overtime, and patient experience. Many receive reports but have limited time to analyze trends and translate them into action. Copilot in Excel can help explore data, identify patterns, generate formulas, and create visualizations. Teach managers how to use these prompts in Excel:

• “Analyze this overtime report and identify patterns by week and shift.”
• “Create a chart showing our monthly turnover trend.”
• “Identify unusual changes in these staffing metrics and suggest questions I should investigate.”
• “Summarize the major findings in this report for a nursing leadership meeting.”

A nurse manager should never assume that a calculated trend or suggested explanation is correct without checking the underlying data.

6. Developing Educational and Coaching Materials 

Nurse managers are frequently asked to educate staff, reinforce expectations, and coach performance. Copilot in Word and PowerPoint can help develop first drafts of materials, discussion guides, checklists, and presentations. Teach managers to use these prompts in Word and PowerPoint:

• “Create a one-page checklist for a charge nurse preparing for the first 30 minutes of a shift.”
• “Develop five coaching questions I can ask a novice nurse who is struggling with prioritization.”
• “Draft a 10-minute staff huddle discussion about closed-loop communication.”
• “Create an outline for a brief presentation on preventing interruptions during medication administration.”

Any clinical content should be reviewed against current evidence, approved policies, and organizational standards before use.

7. Preparing for a Difficult Leadership Conversation

This may be one of AI’s most underappreciated uses. Nurse managers regularly navigate conflict, resistance, accountability concerns, and emotionally challenging conversations. AI can help them rehearse what they want to say, consider alternative perspectives, and develop better questions. Teach them how to use these prompts in Word:

• “Help me prepare for a conversation with an employee who frequently arrives late. Suggest an opening statement that is respectful but direct.”
• “Role-play an employee who is resistant to a new scheduling process. Help me practice responding without becoming defensive.”
• “Suggest five coaching questions to help an experienced nurse who is frustrated about repeatedly supporting novice colleagues.”
• “Review this draft conversation opener. Does it communicate accountability while preserving psychological safety?”

Managers should use hypothetical or de-identified scenarios unless their organization’s approved AI policies explicitly permit the information involved. Copilot should never make employee performance judgments or replace the manager’s responsibility to listen, investigate, and make fair decisions.

Why Access is Not Enough

I believe organizations make a mistake when they assume that purchasing AI licenses will automatically improve productivity.  Many nurse managers are not technology experts. They may be unsure what Copilot can do, how to write an effective prompt, or whether they are permitted to use it with particular information. Some may be concerned about making mistakes or exposing confidential information. These are legitimate concerns.

Organizations need to provide practical, role-specific education rather than expecting managers to discover these capabilities on their own. Have managers use Copilot during a workshop with realistic nursing leadership scenarios. The suggestions above are a good place to start. This might be the most valuable leadership development you can give your nurse managers right now.

Book Now – Brand New Full-Day Workshop for Your 2027 Leadership Needs –   Rethinking Leadership and Redesigning Work

To lead through these challenges and others effectively, nurse leaders need new tools and strategies. Let me help; I have supported hundreds of organizations over the past six years.  Please contact me at roseosherman@outlook.com to book a workshop or keynote for your team. Not seeing what you want on this list? Feel free to reach out, and I am happy to design a custom program to meet your needs.

Staying Power: Building a Culture of Retention in the New World of Work

Brand New in 2026 with Rave Reviews – The Inverted Pyramid: Leading Teams of Novice Nurses  The Inverted Pyramid WS Information Sheet

Our Most Popular Right Now –The New World of Work Workshop

A Leader Favorite – Building Bridges Not Walls: Leading Multigenerational Work Teams – Click Here for More Information   Building Bridges Not Walls

A Must-Read Book in 2026 – Click Here to Buy

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

It always surprises me when I go on-site to do nurse manager workshops and the CNO isn’t present for any of the discussions. Some CNOs are quite the opposite and stay all day. There is never any awkwardness because I have found that nurse managers are diplomatic and rarely look for people to blame; they just want to be heard. The following are ten things nurse managers often share with me, and some, but not all, CNOs know.

1. “My job has become too big for one person.” The nurse manager role has expanded to include staffing, quality, patient experience, financial performance, employee engagement, regulatory compliance, and constant problem-solving. Something has to give, and telling a manager to do more with less can feel insulting.

2. “Having enough nurses is not the same as having enough experience.” A unit may meet its staffing targets but still be clinically vulnerable when most nurses have fewer than two years of experience. Novice density changes the support and supervision a unit needs. As our novice density increases, so too does leader intensity.

3. “My experienced nurses are carrying an invisible workload.” Experienced nurses coach novices, catch errors, anticipate problems, and rescue struggling colleagues while managing their own patients. This work rarely appears in staffing calculations. They need the bonuses, not new graduates.

4. “I spend much of my day putting out fires instead of leading.” Constant interruptions, staffing problems, and operational demands leave little time for coaching, developing staff, improving practice, or thinking strategically.

5. “Every new initiative adds work, but almost nothing gets taken away.” Nurse managers are expected to implement new programs, technologies, reporting requirements, and organizational priorities without eliminating older responsibilities. Nothing is ever taken off our plates – things are just added.

6. “I need more than encouragement to build a healthy work environment.” Psychological safety, accountability, teamwork, and retention require time, leadership development, consistent organizational support, and the authority to address difficult behaviors.

7. “My charge nurses are often novices at leadership themselves.” Nurses with 18 months or two years of experience may be placed in charge roles before they have developed the clinical judgment, conflict management, delegation, and team leadership skills those roles require.

8. “I am held accountable for outcomes and metrics I cannot fully control.” Nurse managers are responsible for turnover, overtime, staffing, patient experience, and quality outcomes, yet they may have limited influence over budgets, hiring, staffing resources, support from other departments, or organizational policies.

9. “I don’t always feel safe telling senior leadership how bad things really are.” Managers may worry that raising concerns will make them appear negative, ineffective, or unable to handle their responsibilities. As a result, executives often get an incomplete picture of frontline conditions. One manager shared: ” My CNO only wants happy news.”

10. “I love nursing leadership, but I don’t know how long I can keep doing this.” Even highly committed managers can become exhausted when their workload is unsustainable, and their efforts seem insufficient. Losing these leaders also means losing valuable organizational knowledge and relationships.

The question for CNOs is not simply whether nurse managers are resilient enough. It is whether the organization has designed a nurse manager role that is realistically achievable. If your nurse managers could speak with complete candor and without fear of consequences, what would they tell you?

© emergingrnleader.com 2026

To lead through these challenges and others effectively, nurse leaders need new tools and strategies. Let me help; I have supported hundreds of organizations over the past six years.  Please contact me at roseosherman@outlook.com to book a workshop or keynote for your team. Not seeing what you want on this list? Feel free to reach out, and I am happy to design a custom program to meet your needs.

Staying Power: Building a Culture of Retention in the New World of Work

Brand New in 2026 with Rave Reviews – The Inverted Pyramid: Leading Teams of Novice Nurses  The Inverted Pyramid WS Information Sheet

Our Most Popular Right Now –The New World of Work Workshop

A Leader Favorite – Building Bridges Not Walls: Leading Multigenerational Work Teams – Click Here for More Information   Building Bridges Not Walls

A Must-Read Book in 2026 – Click Here to Buy

I am proud to partner with Northwest ONL for the Inverted Pyramid of Nursing Experience workshop on December 8th, 2026, from 10 AM to 12 PM PST. This is the last Inverted Pyramid workshop offered in 2026, so as you plan your strategy for 2027, you won’t want to miss it.

One CNO recently told me she is using the Inverted Pyramid to explain what is happening in both the C-suite and with her board. After the program, she did both a novice density and acute care experience audit on all units in her hospital and presented the data to her executive colleagues. She reported that “they really seemed shocked at how much our workforce in both nursing and other departments has changed over the past five years. It gave me the language to explain what we are experiencing.”                                                         

Register your team using this LINK

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

When an experienced nurse leaves a hospital, we often measure the loss in familiar ways: turnover costs, vacancy rates, recruitment expenses, and the time required to orient a replacement. But what if the greatest loss is something we are not measuring?  Experienced nurses do an enormous amount of invisible work that keeps patients safe, supports novice nurses, and helps nursing units function effectively. Much of this work is never documented, formally assigned, or recognized in staffing calculations. Yet it may be among their most important contributions.

The Clinical Safety Net We Take for Granted

Think about the experienced nurse who walks past a patient’s room, notices something subtle, and stops to investigate. The patient does not look quite right. There may be no alarming vital signs or obvious deterioration, but something about the situation raises concern. Or consider the experienced charge nurse who recognizes that a novice colleague is becoming overwhelmed before that nurse asks for help. These are examples of clinical judgment developed over years of practice. Experienced nurses recognize patterns, anticipate complications, and often intervene before problems become emergencies. Their contributions aren’t always visible because the adverse events they prevent never happen.

Five Types of Invisible Work Experienced Nurses Contribute to Units

Experienced nurses contribute to unit safety in ways that go far beyond their individual patient assignments.

1. Clinical Surveillance

They notice subtle changes, connect seemingly unrelated clinical findings, and recognize deterioration before standard monitoring systems trigger an alert.

2. Informal Coaching

They answer questions, validate assessments, help novice nurses think through clinical decisions, and reassure them in unfamiliar situations. Much of this coaching happens spontaneously throughout a shift.

3. Anticipating Problems

Experienced nurses think several steps ahead. They recognize potential complications, anticipate resource needs, and identify workflow problems before they disrupt patient care.

4. Helping Teams Recover

When admissions arrive unexpectedly, patients deteriorate, or staffing changes occur, experienced nurses know how to reprioritize and redistribute work. They help stabilize the unit when the original plan no longer works.

5. Preventing Errors

They quietly catch medication discrepancies, question unusual orders, recognize missing information, and intervene when something does not seem right.

These contributions rarely appear in productivity reports, but they are essential to safe care. The Inverted Pyramid of Nursing Experience is changing that dynamic as units have fewer and fewer experienced nurses today. The informal safety net is disappearing. As nursing teams become more novice-dense, experienced nurses often take on more invisible work. They may carry a full patient assignment while also answering questions, supporting new graduates, helping with complex clinical decisions, and managing unexpected events. This additional cognitive and emotional work is rarely reflected in staffing assignments or workload calculations. An experienced nurse may appear to have the same number of patients as everyone else while carrying significantly greater responsibility for the team’s safety and functioning.

The few experienced nurses left feel overwhelmed and underappreciated. During a recent session, nurse managers uniformly agreed that we are ignoring these experienced nurses; they receive far less professional development than they did in the past and don’t get the sign-on bonuses new graduates receive. Managers are also burned out and exhausted because they are picking up more of this invisible work.

Yet many organizations continue to operate as though their nursing workforce’s experience composition has not changed. We use the same staffing approaches, assign similar workloads, and expect the same informal support systems to function. Ironically, the nurses we most need to retain may be the ones carrying the greatest invisible workload.

How Do We Make the Invisible Visible

To make the invisible visible, nurse leaders need to ask different questions:

• How much informal coaching are experienced nurses providing during a typical shift?
• Who serves as the clinical safety net when novice nurses encounter unfamiliar situations?
• Are experienced nurses receiving workload adjustments for their mentoring and surveillance responsibilities?
• What happens on shifts when few experienced nurses are available?
• Which critical safety processes depend on knowledge that exists only in the heads of experienced staff?

These questions should become part of staffing discussions, workforce planning, and unit-based risk assessments. We also need to recognize that retaining experienced nurses requires more than asking them to stay. It means redesigning their roles so that their expertise is valued, their contributions are visible, and their workload is sustainable. When experienced nurses leave, hospitals lose much more than years of service. They lose clinical intuition, organizational memory, informal mentoring capacity, and countless small interventions that prevent larger problems. Much of this work has remained invisible because it was always there. In today’s novice-dense nursing environment, we can no longer afford to take it for granted.

Book Now – Brand New Full-Day Workshop for Your 2027 Leadership Needs –   Rethinking Leadership and Redesigning Work

To lead through these challenges and others effectively, nurse leaders need new tools and strategies. Let me help, Ihave supported hundreds of organizations over the past six years.  Please contact me at roseosherman@outlook.com to book a workshop or keynote for your team. Not seeing what you want on this list? Feel free to reach out, and I am happy to design a custom program to meet your needs.

Staying Power: Building a Culture of Retention in the New World of Work

Brand New in 2026 with Rave Reviews – The Inverted Pyramid: Leading Teams of Novice Nurses  The Inverted Pyramid WS Information Sheet

Our Most Popular Right Now –The New World of Work Workshop

A Leader Favorite – Building Bridges Not Walls: Leading Multigenerational Work Teams – Click Here for More Information   Building Bridges Not Walls

A Must-Read Book in 2026 – Click Here to Buy

I am sure many of you saw the article in this week’s Wall Street Journal about the challenges of nurse retention in acute care environments. I am happy to partner with NE ONL on our highly rated program, Staying Power: Building a Culture of Retention in the New World of Work, which is offered on November 10th. In this program, we talk about a multifaceted approach to retention today and the best practices we are seeing across the country. If you are struggling to retain nurses, why not register your team and hold a watch party? Register with this LINK  –  https://lnkd.in/ens264Sf(opens in new tab)