Tech transformation could be ‘pipe dream’ if nurses are ignored
Transforming the NHS with technology could be a “pipe-dream” if the views of nurses are not heard, the e-health lead at the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) has warned.
The RCN has today (9 July) published results of a consultation with nurses and midwives on what is needed for nursing to play its full part in the digital transformation of healthcare.
The consultation is part of the RCN’s ‘Every nurse an e-nurse’ campaign, which is calling for every UK nurse to be an e-nurse by 2020.
Held between 25 January 2018 and 23 February 2018, the consultation had almost 900 online contributors, with an additional 100 attending five focus groups held across the UK.
One of the common themes to emerge from the consultation was the issue of IT programmes and systems designed without input from nursing professionals.
One contributor said: “[Decision-makers] often do not know the extent of our work and have never walked in our shoes, yet they make decisions on our behalf and bring in systems for us to use. They have no idea about workflows and how information is used.”
Another called for e-nursing leaders to not just be seen as “an IT project”.
Ross Scrivener, e-health lead at the RCN, said: “In the past few weeks leading up to the 70th anniversary of the NHS, we’ve heard a succession of healthcare leaders arguing that the best way to transform healthcare in the UK is to utilise the full benefits of digital technology. But our consultation shows that that aim will remain a pipe-dream unless managers, technology providers and IT staff take more account of the views of nurses, the biggest staff group in the health service.”
“The single most important theme to emerge from the consultation is that involving nurses in the design and implementation of programmes and systems to improve patient care is not an optional add-on – it is absolutely vital if those systems are going to provide the benefits they’re supposed to.”
Another common theme was out of date and inadequate IT systems.
A contributor said: “I hate to think how much nursing time is wasted each day waiting for computers to switch on, load emails, bring up blood results – that is, if you can find one that is free.”
Other barriers included lack of health informatics training in nursing degree courses and lack of staff.
Scrivener added: “Nurses see very clearly the potential of technology to transform their and patients’ lives and want to play their full part – but that won’t happen until their views are listened to”.
8 Comments
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As a Nurse who now works in the NHS in Systems development and deployment, I have been championing this cause for many years.
A fundamental shift in Nurse Education would help to highlight the key role that nurses play in the implementation of the full spectrum of digital integration necessary to improve outcomes and efficiency.
We need more practice educators and academic staff, building tomorrows nursing workforce, to demonstrate the innovation already underway and promote creative applications for the future
IT software companies and IT focused healthcare consultancies need to recruit nurses into their organisations if they are to truly have clinical insight. Many such businesses make boastful claims regarding ‘clinical input’, yet in most cases such input is derived from medical consultants or senior doctors. Most of whom don’t even use the IT, unlike nurses who are using it day in, day out!! If you want clinical insight… ask a nurse, and there are plenty of us out there with IT qualifications and even like myself a RN, nurse prescriber, a SCPHN in two fields of practice, with a PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification, GDPR trained, a rising star in healthcare award, and 3x degrees including an MBA… We are still not ‘experienced enough’. The corporate world seems blind sighted by the fact we used to wear a uniform and help save lives, so they overlook our highly transferable skills and incredible versatility, strategic thinking and managerial excellence because all they see is ‘just a nurse’. Corporate recruitment myopia is rife sadly. And therein lies the problems…
Wow fab skills!
Outside of organisational projects the UK could also really benefit from clinical staff getting involved in OpenEHR archetype modelling. (https://www.openehr.org/)
Digital transformation needs to be led by the organisation with heavy clinical input from the start and not something that IT tries to do to the organisation. IT help transform the organisation but should not be the primary drivers.
Alternative Headline…
“Tech transformation could be ‘pipe dream’ if nurses ignore IT”
Quite a passive aggressive comment. How about we work toward constructive results. Are you a nurse? Do you know a nurse? How can we get nurses to get on board with IT, and to help transform IT to something that will drive us forward?
Big culture shift required here. Bottom line though is that data needs to be collected for a purpose and staff need to understand why, not just collect information because we can. Also IT is a tool and sometimes it’s not the right one , it doesn’t cure everything. Unfortunately the NHS has still yet to learn this 🙂
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