Benjamin J. Galatzan, PhD, RN - Capstone College of Nursing

Amy Bigham: Clinical Associate Professor | Coordinator, Master's Entry into Profession Nursing

Assistant Professor

(205) 348- 1033
bjgalatzan@ua.edu
(205) 348-5559

Education

PhD, Nursing Informatics, University of Arizona, 2019
MSN, Masters of Science in Nursing, Nursing Education, Clarkson College, 2009
BSN, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, 2001

Biography

Dr. Benjamin J. Galatzan earned his Associate Degree in Nursing from Mid-Plains Community College, his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, his Master of Science in Nursing Education from Clarkson College, and his PhD in Nursing Informatics from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Galatzan began his nursing career in clinical practice, serving in a range of roles across rural and urban healthcare settings, including emergency, medical-surgical, orthopedic, outpatient, and patient education environments. He later transitioned into academic nursing and has taught in undergraduate, RN-to-BSN, master’s, DNP, and PhD programs. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama, where he specializes in nursing informatics and artificial intelligence in nursing and healthcare.

Dr. Galatzan’s scholarship focuses on artificial intelligence, nursing informatics, and nurse communication during transitions of care. His work emphasizes AI readiness assessment, education and training for responsible AI implementation, and the integration of AI into nursing curriculum and clinical workflow. He also examines the use of AI tools to enhance and augment transition-of-care communication, including nurse handoffs and interfacility transfer communication, with particular attention to rural healthcare settings and strategies to reduce unnecessary interfacility transfers. His broader research interests include cognitive workload, digital health literacy, and the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing to improve communication, patient safety, and care delivery.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Dr. Galatzan is active in professional leadership and service. He has published and presented nationally and internationally on topics related to nursing informatics, artificial intelligence, healthcare communication, and nursing policy. He serves in leadership roles within the American Medical Informatics Association’s Nursing Informatics Working Group and contributes to national nursing informatics policy efforts through the Alliance for Nursing Informatics. His work reflects a commitment to advancing nursing education, practice, research, and policy through the responsible, ethical, and human-centered integration of emerging technologies.

Faculty Division

Nursing Leadership

Areas of Interest

Informatics
Nursing Education & Professional Development
Rural Health
Technology

Scholarly Highlights

Regulating at the AI Frontier: The Collision of Policy, Regulation, and Nursing Practice Examines how emerging AI policy and regulation intersect with nursing practice, with attention to professional accountability, scope, and the evolving role of nurses in AI-enabled care.
Integrating Digital Health Literacy into Undergraduate Nursing Education: A Case-Based Intervention Study Focuses on preparing nursing students to critically evaluate and use digital health information and technologies through an educational intervention grounded in informatics and applied learning.
Perceptions of Cognitive Load and Workload in Nurse Handoffs: A Comparative Study Across Differing Patient-Nurse Ratios and Acuity Levels Investigates how workload and cognitive demands shape nurse handoff communication, with implications for communication quality, patient safety, and workflow design.
Issues and Challenges of Communicating Interfacility Transfer Patient Information in the United States: A Systematic Review Reviews the evidence on communication barriers during interfacility patient transfers and highlights challenges that affect care continuity, safety, and coordination, particularly across settings.
AI Solutions for Enhanced Transition of Care Handoffs in Acute Care: A Human-Centered Approach A scholarly project focused on the development of AI-supported solutions to improve transition-of-care handoffs through a human-centered nursing and workflow-informed approach.