20 | Nursing in Practice | Summer 2022
COLUMNISTS
Digital nurse leaders are vital
to the future of primary care
The two first chief nursing information officers( CNIOs) in primary care, Cheryl O’ Sullivan and Louise Bell in Dorset, explain how their role – and nursing – is crucial to the digital future of the sector
Cheryl O’ Sullivan and Louise Bell
Covid-19 has brought fresh challenges to nursing, but in general practice it has also meant opportunities to explore the potential of digital technology and been a key driver towards developing new models of care.
The community of CNIOs is growing and they are now seen as integral members of hospital leadership teams. But what about primary care? At the Digital Nursing Summit in March, England’ s CNO Ruth May pledged her support for a CNIO role in every healthcare organisation, saying this would give the profession‘ the voice, coordination and network, to make a significant impact within the digital sphere’.
We are proud to step into that new territory as CNIOs supporting primary care in Dorset. It is an honour to be that strong nursing voice, to bridge the gap between technology and clinical practice and help empower nursing teams to enact change.
The NHS Long Term Plan, released in 2019, sets the direction towards widespread digitally enabled care – helping people to stay well, recognise important symptoms early and manage their own health. The pandemic has seen nurses adapt to the shift to remote monitoring and digital technology, and we can now leverage that to develop a primary care network‘ digital first model’ to drive the‘ empowered self-care’ agenda.
Clinical engagement We view ourselves as clinical champions, uniquely positioned in both IT and clinical worlds. Wearing both‘ hats’, we work in partnership with PCNs to support teams in using a population health approach to assess the health, risks and inequalities in their populations and target resources accordingly. This is through accelerated access to services at home, such as structured diabetes education, remote pulmonary rehabilitation and blood pressure @ home. By looking beyond traditional
We bridge the gap between technology and clinical practice to empower nurses
pathways, we empower patients and work collaboratively to make decisions about their health, while enabling flexibility and equity of service. We work with nursing teams on any barriers they encounter; our digital health huddles support integration by facilitating a safe space to share experiences, gain support and learn together.
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Measuring impact and looking to the future The impact of digital healthcare is demonstrated through our patient stories: the patient who engaged with remote pulmonary rehabilitation, who now gets out to exercise regularly; the patient who now understands his blood pressure and has taken control of his own health while his hypertension is managed remotely.
The upskilling of current staff and the development of new roles has led to an empowered workforce, which has ownership and job satisfaction. This brings the possibility of developing new career pathways and improving retention. We aim to further close the digital divide by exploring how to address inequalities caused by homelessness, poverty or transient populations, and envisage a growing network of CNIOs working in primary care to help take the digital agenda forward.