Nursing is at a crossroads. Rising patient acuity, persistent staffing shortages, and high turnover have pushed health systems to draw a hard line against digital workflows that distract nurses from care delivery. The solution isn’t layering AI onto outdated workflows—it’s reinventing how nurses work, making technology invisible and care effortless.
Just as the shift from paper to digital introduced a generational opportunity for redesign, bringing ambient AI to nursing introduces a rare window for fundamental transformation: one that aligns technology with high value care delivery and gives nurses the same efficiency gains physicians have realized.
Microsoft Dragon Copilot brings that vision to life—empowering nurses to “care out loud” and capturing documentation seamlessly while technology fades into the background. Nurses aren’t just the most trusted professionals; they deliver most of the direct patient care. Every interaction is a chance to engage, apply critical thinking, and improve outcomes. By reducing time spent navigating screens and freeing nurses to focus on presence and compassion, Dragon Copilot unlocks their full potential—creating powerful opportunities to elevate care at the bedside.
How Dragon Copilot supports nursing staff
Dragon Copilot turns real-time bedside conversations and observations into the clinical documentation nurses need—without pulling focus from the patient. Nurses speak and the interaction is ambiently recorded on a mobile EHR app; Dragon Copilot structures, summarizes, and surfaces what matters next, reducing clicks and cognitive load.
What it delivers:
- Flowsheet documentation drafted from captured interactions and mapped to each hospital’s unique schema without needing to specify the template up front, making it easy for nurses to review in workflow, edit as needed, and file into the EHR.
- Nurse notes for incidents and status changes, ready to copy into the EHR or communication systems, saves nurses time on narrative documentation.
- Concise summaries of major findings and next steps to keep nurses organized amid constant interruptions.
- Beyond documentation:
- Query transcripts for details not typically captured in EHR documentation.
- Ask clinical questions and get answers from organization-trusted sources like FDA and MedlinePlus—supporting patient education at the bedside.
Integrating into complex nursing workflows
Transforming nursing workflow isn’t just about adding new technology—it’s about addressing the realities of nursing practice. That means supporting diverse workflows and preferences, managing the complexity of structured flowsheet documentation, and navigating the human side of change for an already strained workforce. Real impact requires more than layering large language models onto existing applications or repurposing physician-focused solutions—it demands a transformation that reduces administrative burden and aligns with how nurses deliver their best care.
Here’s how we’ve met these challenges—and continue to refine the experience:
Flexible interaction styles
Every nurse works differently, and patient needs vary. Dragon Copilot adapts seamlessly by capturing documentation during patient conversations or when nurses record thoughts outside the room—without requiring extra steps or mode selection. Through the Epic Rover mobile app, Dragon Copilot supports:
- Conversational recordings captured naturally during patient interactions
- Stream-of-consciousness voice recordings captured outside the room
This flexibility supports nurses in capturing observations in the way that fits their workflow without adding friction.
Advanced AI purpose-built for nursing
Dragon Copilot converts even ambiguous voice recordings into accurate, structured flowsheet entries--correctly mapping to the appropriate row and value out of thousands of possibilities. Our AI is adapted to nursing vocabulary and optimized for speed and accuracy. The result? Performance far beyond what generic frontier models can deliver.
Seamless integration with existing flowsheet templates
No need to migrate to a standard flowsheet format. Dragon Copilot works with your organization’s existing flowsheet schema. In addition, during the setup process, the solution:
- Automatically surfaces flowsheet optimization opportunities—such as duplicate rows—within the Dragon Admin Center, helping administrators enhance usability and improve AI accuracy during implementation.
- Enables rapid administrator validation of AI outputs, before go-live or after template change, so potential problems are resolved proactively without disrupting workflows
In-app support for documentation integrity
For every AI-extracted flowsheet value, nurses can:
- See the exact transcript section that supports it
- Access organization-configured guides during recording
- Review a preview of AI results upon pausing, with gaps highlighted, so they can complete documentation before sending values to the EHR
Nurses stay in control
Only AI-generated flowsheet values reviewed and accepted by the nurse become part of the medical record, giving nurses control of their EHR documentation.
Scalable deployment through automation
The Dragon admin center now supports the Dragon Copilot experience for nurses, providing a unified platform to manage deployments, configure product settings, create EHR instances, and access analytics for adoption tracking and change management. Administrators can define which flowsheet templates and rows are ambiently enabled, as well as manage user access to them. The platform also includes licensing and organization lifecycle management, giving organizations a comprehensive oversight of their Dragon Copilot implementation
Transformation services
Transformation isn’t just about technology—it’s about enabling change. Our services approach supports organizations in implementing change management practices proven by early customers to drive results.
Designing with nurses at the helm
Our collaboration with nurse leaders and frontline teams, paired with continuous investment in nurse-driven design, remains central to our approach to delivering meaningful transformation.
From innovation to impact
The Dragon Copilot experience for nurses is part of our Dragon Copilot AI clinical assistant—developed based on decades of clinical expertise with Microsoft’s scale, security, and relentless commitment to innovation.
Microsoft was first to bring ambient solutions to physicians, and now we’re delivering the first ambient solution purpose-built for nursing—shaped through years of collaboration with nurse leaders and frontline teams. Our mission is simple yet bold: empower nurses to deliver exceptional care by reducing administrative burden and honoring human connection at the heart of care. Fulfilling this mission demands collaboration, relentless innovation, and a shared commitment to getting it right—because nurses deserve nothing less.
Join us on this journey in shaping the future of nursing. Learn more at aka.ms/dragoncopilot andMicrosoft Learn.
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