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Digital roles

Digital roles

Introduction

The effective use of information and digital technologies is a key enabler in delivering health and social care now and in the future.

Unlike other sectors, health and social care has been relatively slow to realise the benefits of technology enhanced care. But this is changing. The pace of change is accelerating and citizen expectations are growing.

Modern nursing and midwifery requires digital capabilities. This is being reflected in new and emerging roles across health and social care.

We have interviewed nurses and midwives who are in these roles. We asked them how they moved into the role, what their key responsibilities are, and whether they needed additional qualifications.

We hope they will inspire you to explore the career options that are developing and inform you of the career options available.

🎬 - Indicates the role contains a video case study

🎧 - Indicates the role contains a podcast case study

Please watch the video below for more information on the resource:

Support

In clinical practice:

  • Consider technical devices and digital solutions to solve clinical practice problems.
  • Understand the role of algorithms to support clinical decision making.

 

In education:

  • Teach GDPR, security and social media.
  • Use elearning for personal development.
  • Be a digital champion.
  • Develop simple aids to help others.

 

In management and leadership:

  • Help clinical staff who have little digital/informatics awareness build confidence.

 

In research:

  • Use technology to collect and inform audit data collection.
Adjoa Nsiah-Jennings is a registered nurse working at Saint Francis Hospice as a Digital Educator. Developing technology-enhanced Palliative and End of Life Care education. Supporting staff and volunteers to increase their digital literacy to be better equipped to communicate and collaborate with the people they support. Whilst working to ensure that the virtual teaching remains engaging and accessible for all in this specialist field.

A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Technology Enabled). Adjoa comes to the world of digital with a varied portfolio of nurse leadership experience. Prior to joining the Hospice, Adjoa worked for NELFT NHS Foundation Trust as programme lead for Preceptorship, Apprentice Nursing Associates and Rotational Nursing. In 2020, she and her team at NELFT in partnership with Barts Health NHS Trust; became RCNi Nurse Awards Finalists in the Child Health Award category. For their innovative Children and Young people’s physical and mental health rotational nursing programme.

Adjoa is an Action Learning Set Facilitator and recently completed the Shuri Network Digital Nursing Fellowship programme. The Shuri Network was launched in July 2019 to support women from ethnic minority backgrounds in the NHS and care with an interest in digital health.

Claire Tolliday - eHospital Senior Clinical Nurse podcast

RCN · Claire Tolliday - Digital Roles                                                                                                                                                                    

Specialist

In clinical practice:

  • Scale alterations to improve patient care.
  • Present the positive changes digital systems can make to clinical care.

 

In education:

  • Lecture in HE institutions and within organisations.
  • Work with varied teams making connections and building interoperability options for systems.

 

In management and leadership:

  • Use service improvement methodology to define and report stages of change in  practice and ensure sustainability.
  • Take part in regional governance and systems development.

 

In research:

  • Inform service improvements based on data and move into active research.
  • Influence the inclusion of informatics in future research areas.

Jayshree Jadav is a Senior Project Nurse within the Digital & Informatics Implementation team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. Commencing her career at Airedale General Hospital and Nuffield Health Hospital Leeds, Jayshree’s experience developed in the challenging environment of the Emergency Department at Kings College Hospital, London.

Before long, Jayshree was headhunted by esteemed healthcare IT organisation Cerner where she began her digital healthcare journey. Jayshree’s passion is now focussed on developing the in-house EHR system within the Leeds NHS Hospitals.

As a Senior EHRS Clinical System Designer, Elizabeth has worked closely with clinical staff to analyse their processes, current and future workflows. As part of the clinical documentation team, she has analysed, designed, developed, configured, tested and developed reporting capabilities within the application.

She has also participated in the wider clinical governance and change management organisation for the EHRS programme. She has acted as a Change Management Agent to engage staff in reviewing working practices and communicating changes to practices and policies. Previous roles include Clinical Analyst at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and EPIC Consultant at Mount Sinai Health System in New York.

Catriona Jamieson is a Community Learning Disabilities nurse working for PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society), the only organisation that works exclusively with people who have profound and multiple learning disabilities and complex health needs. She has lead and develop various aspects of PAMIS' work including PAMIS Digital Passports, our specialist PMLD First Aid course, the specialist epilepsy service, health related services for people with PMLD, and digital services for people with PMLD. She is passionate about using a digital and multimedia approach to assist in developing a broad range of supportive and inclusive services and tools from oral and living history projects to communicating practical health and care information.

If you wish to get in contact with her, you can do so at c.z.jamieson@dundee.ac.uk.

Influencer

In clinical practice:

  • Scale alterations to improve patient care.
  • Present the positive changes digital systems can make to clinical care.

 

In education:

  • Lecture in HE institutions and within organisations.
  • Work with varied teams making connections and building interoperability options for systems.

 

In management and leadership:

  • Use service improvement methodology to define and report stages of change in  practice and ensure sustainability.
  • Take part in regional governance and systems development.

 

In research:

  • Inform service improvements based on data and move into active research.
  • Influence the inclusion of informatics in future research areas.

Roxanne is a postdoctoral ophthalmic nurse researcher and head of research nursing at the NIHR Clinical Research Facility, Moorfields Eye Hospital. She is passionate about improving ophthalmic patient related outcomes through the modelling of real-world clinical data to deliver personalised medicine. She sits on the board of the Royal College of Nursing Ophthalmic Nursing Forum and is a Trustee of the International Glaucoma Association.

She is also a Florence Nightingale scholar, a NIHR 70@70 senior research leader and a Topol/Health Education England Digital Health Fellow. Roxanne has several peer-reviewed publications and oral/poster presentations at national and international conferences.

Strategic

In clinical practice:

  • Consultant roles working with executive teams.
  • Explore the art of the possible.
  • Look towards the future with the enablement of clinical technology in practice.

 

In education:

  • Take the professor/chair role, which may be a portfolio.
  • Confidently teach and coach staff to develop digital technologies.
  • Lead on major improvement within digital health informatics.
  • Support the development of relevant HE programmes/faculty.

 

In management and leadership:

  • Work with the organisation’s information and communications specialists to design clinical technology strategy and planning for the organisation.
  • Work in population health level role, regionally or nationally, in directing/influencing/commissioning services and systems.

 

In research:

  • Write and gain bids that inform professional practice and improve patient outcomes based on the patients seen and the data collected.
  • Direct research programmes or strategically influence the future research.
  • Provide expert input into other research portfolios.

Anna Awoliyi is a Chief Allied Health Information Officer who works with patients, multidisciplinary teams and executives in the NHS to ensure a patient-centered approach when introducing new technology. After spending nearly a decade working in the health economy and advocating for patients, Anna believes patients and staff should be the forefront of the constantly evolving developments and opportunities in health care.

Previously, Anna worked as a Transformation Programme Manager and has recently been appointed to CNIO at Kettering General Hospital. During her previous role at Kettering, her team was presented with an innovation award from NHS Improvement. Anna has also featured in The Nursing Times on current technology and healthcare topics.

Anna is a trained Biochemist and Operating Department Practitioner and holds a Masters in Project Management and is an enthusiastic entrepreneur. Anna has combined her passion for Healthcare and Fashion design and created a dynamic ethos in healthcare and technology matters.

Anna is currently working on the roll-out of System C’s Care Flow Vitals and Care Flow Connect modules across Kettering General Hospital.

Douglas has successfully delivered large scale IT Transformation projects within the healthcare sector and the private sector. Douglas is a practicing Mental Health Nurse with more than a decade of experience working across inpatient and community settings, he has successfully combined this with his strong background in engineering and technology, this allows him to add that extra validity and clinical expertise to consultancy and engagement with clinicians and technical staff. This is underpinned by strong effective leadership and coaching approach to successfully drive through change.

Douglas is passionately driven to introduce technology to improve the working lives for Health care professionals by enabling them to deliver a better care for citizens. His passion for patient empowerment has resulted in a chapter on Collaboration between patients and carers being published in Mental Health & Psychiatry 3rd Edition which is used to train nurses on care planning. He also is an honorary lecturer at Kingston University delivery the Recovery focused Care planning module to pre-registration nurses.

Whilst working as a Surgical Matron, Emily was asked to lead on the implementation of an Electronic Health record system at an integrated South London Trust. Emily has worked leading on digital projects for past 10 years and became CNIO at the Norfolk and Norwich in 2020. Emily is a Florence Nightingale Foundation Digital Leadership Scholar and was awarded CNIO of the Year 2021 for her work on the implementation at the NNUH of a technology enabled virtual ward.

Jo works at Nuffield Health, a not-for-profit healthcare organisation which provides a wide range of clinical services (in hospitals, health clinics, fitness and wellbeing gyms and diagnostic units) to deliver a connected and complete health and wellbeing service. Jo’s role is to provide clinical leadership across Informatics programmes. The organisation is currently amid significant technology enabled change and is in the process of implementing Intersystems Trakcare (in 31 hospitals) as an Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Immediately prior to her role at Nuffield Health, Jo was CNIO at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Morag is the Programme Manager for Lanarkshire’s Telehealth Programme which included United4Health as well as the European falls prevention study – SmartCare. Her involvement in these programmes has led to a subsequent expansion of Home & Mobile Health Monitoring across the Lanarkshire partnership area as part of the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care Programme.

Since qualifying in 1974 as a nurse at Glasgow Royal Infirmary,  Morag has worked in various hospital and community settings and was instrumental in the establishment of the first early supported discharge team at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire. Moving to NHSGG&C in 2003,  she used this experience in the roll out the Community Older People’s Team in Rutherglen/Cambuslang: a Joint Futures initiative with South Lanarkshire Social Work department.  Transferred back to Lanarkshire in 2009, Morag continued to play a lead role in setting up the innovative Integrated Community Support Team, before moving on to champion telehealth developments.

Natasha is Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at UCLH. She was Deputy Director of Nursing at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust between 2009 and 2012. In 2013 she became Assistant Chief Nurse and Nursing and Midwifery Research Programme Lead Clinical Leadership and Quality at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. She was Exemplar Ward Transformation Programme Lead for the trust between 2015-2017.

She was named CNIO of the Year at the Digital Health Awards 2019.

Creenagh started her career in project management in the construction and mining industries, and although very removed from nursing, learned many skills that she found to be highly transferable specifically around management and leadership.

She worked for two years in South Africa for an international organisation, and the experience of understanding the challenges and benefits of working with a diversity of nationalities and cultures has served her well in her nursing career, which started in Colo-rectal surgery. Here, she developed a greater understanding of effective communication and the positive effects this can have on both patients and staff in supporting positive outcomes.

From there, she moved to A&E, always a challenging environment, but by applying good team building skills, empowering nurses, and offering professional development opportunities, developed a highly effective nursing team that delivered outstanding levels of effective and compassionate care to patients.

As her areas of responsibility increased across the trust, she applied this same approach to leadership,  and whilst this was often not without its challenges, the satisfaction of seeing the nursing workforce empowered and grow in confidence and ability was very rewarding.  From the acute trust, she moved into social care for a number of years, and as Operations Director focused on both the clinical and business side of the organisation, again bringing previous experience to the role, but also learning about the essential need for a collaborative interface between healthcare and social care to deliver positive patient outcomes.

Now, back working within healthcare for a private organisation working within the NHS, she is able to utilize the many skills that she has gained along her career pathway, to empower and develop nurses, create safe and effective care pathways for patients and everyday love the challenges and opportunities that she is privileged to face.

Sara is a nurse who has worked in the NHS for over 27 years, not only in clinical roles, but also in site management and as a senior nurse for digital at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT). Her work has centred on “bridging the gap” to support the cultural change needed for digital transformation within the NHS. As part of a central knowledge hub for digital projects across GSTT, Sara and her team also provided advice and validation for clinicians looking to implement new technologies. She has an excellent understanding of the needs of NHS patients and the staff that care for them, and is passionate about bringing the benefits of new technologies to patients and professionals from across health and care more quickly.

Sara is currently enrolled in the 2019-20 NHS Digital Academy, a virtual organisation set up to develop a new generation of excellent digital leaders who can drive the information and technology transformation of the NHS. She is one of only five nurses on the course, and combines her studies with her full-time role at our flagship Accelerator programme.

Ian is the senior clinical director at EMIS Health, a district nurse and Queen’s Nurse. Having worked in a number of clinical and managerial roles within the NHS, including chief clinical informatics officer (CCIO) at a Community NHS Trust, his personal interest in healthcare technology led him to join EMIS Health in 2015. With a focus on clinical leadership and cultural change, Ian and his teams ensure that everything at EMIS Health is clinically driven – improving experiences for both patients and clinicians.

Although his work sees him supporting all healthcare disciplines, Ian’s passion for district nursing remains strong and he continues to work closely with many national bodies to champion the care provided in community settings.

Judith is Senior Lead Informatics Nurse at Hywel Da University Health Board. A specific focus for this position is nurse record keeping, documentation and professional principles for practice; and enabling nurses to utilise Information technology systems to analyse practice related outcomes for the benefit of practice development and patient care.

Courses and networks

Florence Nightingale Foundation Digital Nurse/Midwife Leadership Scholarship

The scholarship is available to nurses and midwives who want to lead in the digital transformation within NHS in Wales.

Twitter: @FNightingaleF

 

Minerva Women’s Leadership Programme

The Minerva leadership programme is aimed at women in middle to senior positions working in a digital health and care environment who have the drive and ambition to make a difference and aspire to a more senior professional leadership role.

Twitter: @ethicalhealthuk

 

NHS Digital Academy

The NHS Digital Academy, through a partnership with Imperial College London, the University of Edinburgh and Harvard Medical School, provides a year-long, world class, fully accredited learning programme (Post Graduate Diploma in Health Leadership) for digital change leaders.

Twitter: @NHSDigAcademy

 

Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHP) Digital Health and Care Leadership Programme

This Programme is led by NHS Education for Scotland and sponsored by Scottish Government, supports ambitious and experienced nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs) to influence digital health and care and demonstrate innovation and creativity in leading change for the benefit of people/patients.

 

Topol Digital Fellowship Programme

The Topol Programme for Digital Fellowships in Healthcare aims to support NHS organisations to invest in clinical staff to develop specialist digital skills and to learn about leading digital transformation, while giving clinicians enough time outside of clinical commitments to lead digital health improvements and innovations.

British Computer Society Nursing Interest Group

The Nursing specialist group (NSG) is part of the British Computer Society. It contributes to national and international debates on information management and technology issues within health care. The NSG contributes to the annual Healthcare Computing (HC) Conferences run by the BCS Health Informatics Committee (HIC).

CNIO Network

The CNIO Network, hosted by Digital Health, is the sister network to the CCIO Network and shares a similar focus on promoting best practice and collaboration across a leadership community that spans NHS organisations across the UK. The core membership comprises the nurses and AHPs who are likely to be working in and with IT.

NHS X Digital Nurse Network

Headed up by two Digital Nurse Champions, who are both experienced practice nurses, the Digital Nurse Network brings together nursing staff and wider practice teams about the work of the national programme and digital initiatives planned for primary care in 2019 and beyond. Being part of the Network will offer nursing professionals the opportunity to discuss the digital offering in the NHS Long Term Plan and share digital best practice tools and peer-to-peer support.

The Network is open to all nursing professionals, from those who were early adopters and pioneers of digital technology to those who have recently caught the technology bug. It will be of particular benefit to those nurses who are interested in or currently taking a lead on digital transformation in their practices.

Twitter: @DigitalNurseNHS
Ann Gregory – @AnnGregoryRN
Helen Crowther - @nursehelenc

One Health Tech

One HealthTech is a grassroots community that supports and promotes women and other under-represented groups to be future leaders in health innovation. It campaigns for the need and importance for better inclusion of all backgrounds, skill sets and disciplines in health tech. OHT supports the health and care community through education, mentorship, promoting the positive effects of inclusion in technology, encouraging broader participation at meetings and events, and championing diversity in leadership.

Twitter: @One_HealthTech

RCN eHealth Forum

‘Every Nurse an eNurse’ is the primary workstream of the RCN eHealth Forum. ENeN strives to help nurses and related professions successfully navigate the challenges of eHealth. By helping to position nursing closer to the heart of digital transformation, ENeN provokes debate about the role of nursing in eHealth, what it means for the profession and showcases examples of where the nursing perspective has led the way in enabling the very best in eHealth practices for the benefit of patients, clinical services, clinicians and researchers.  We aim to engage the nursing workforce, influence policy and publish useful guidance for nurses involved either in delivering digitally enabled services or in the thick of the fight to influence and design it.

Shuri Network

The Shuri Network is the first NHS network of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in health tech and digital health. It is a joint project with NHS England, NHS Digital and Health Education England (HEE) as part of the Building a Digitally Ready Workforce (BDRW) programme. The Shuri Network is for all women of colour who are leading, involved with or interested in digital health and tech in the NHS.

The network aims to develop a more inclusive leadership community that reflects the diversity of the NHS workforce, support career progression and identify authentic role models, particularly in underrepresented groups such as Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and nurses. It's called the Shuri Network after Shuri – the character from the Black Panther film who is the brains behind Wakanda technological advancement and prowess.

Twitter: @NetworkShuri

Faculty of Clinical Informatics – Membership and Fellowship

The Faculty of Clinical Informatics was established as the only UK professional membership body for all clinical informaticians within health and social care. Joining the Faculty offers access to a supportive professional network, helps build knowledge and skills, and allows shared learning with peers to help advance clinical informatics for the benefit of patients and the public. 

The FCI has recently published a core competency framework, which you can access here.

Twitter: @ukfci