Reframing Person-Centered Fundamental Care in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Posthumanization: A Theory-Informed Narrative Review
TL;DR
A theory-informed narrative review reconceptualizes person-centered fundamental care through posthumanization in nursing and proposes relational augmentation as an evaluative framework, providing a practical basis for evaluating whether technological innovation preserves trust, dignity, equity, contextual understanding, and professional judgment in person-centered fundamental care.
Abstract
Abstract Population aging, chronic illness, workforce shortages, and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, virtual nursing, remote monitoring, and digital platforms are reshaping fundamental care. Yet existing literature focuses mainly on technical performance, implementation, and ethical risk, with limited attention to how technology alters the relational conditions of person-centered care. This theory-informed narrative review synthesized multidisciplinary literature identified through PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science, supplemented by reference-list screening and purposive inclusion of seminal works. Seventy-eight empirical, review, conceptual, ethical, policy, and methodological sources informed the synthesis. The review reconceptualizes person-centered fundamental care through posthumanization in nursing—a socio-technical condition in which care practices, judgment, and relationships are increasingly co-produced by human and technological actors—and proposes relational augmentation as an evaluative framework. The synthesis indicates that task substitution is inadequate because it privileges efficiency, standardization, and replacement over interpretation, dignity, and relationship. Relational augmentation instead asks whether technologies strengthen relationship support, integrated recognition of need, and a supportive care context. Across monitoring and prediction, documentation and workflow, communication and education, social robotics, and virtual nursing, the framework identifies both functional benefits and relational risks. It provides a practical basis for evaluating whether technological innovation preserves trust, dignity, equity, contextual understanding, and professional judgment in person-centered fundamental care.