Creating digitally ready nurses in general practice

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Nursing Education
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Digital healthcare in England has primarily used a top-down strategy, focusing on infrastructure over direct care delivery.
• Significant progress is still needed to fully integrate digital solutions into patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an action learning program designed to prepare nurses for digital healthcare roles.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a 'ground-up' approach in empowering front-line clinicians.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of an action learning program for general practice nurses.
• Focus on upskilling and empowering clinicians to adopt technology-enabled care services (TECS).

Main Results:

• 24 general practice nursing digital champions were trained across Staffordshire.
• These champions successfully utilized TECS, yielding benefits for their practice teams.
• The program's success led to national funding for expansion to 12 more regional pilot programs.

Conclusions:

• A 'ground-up' strategy is crucial for embedding technology-enabled care services (TECS) in healthcare.
• Empowering front-line clinicians with digital skills is key to the next phase of healthcare digital transformation.
• Individualized, active learning approaches create a digitally proficient workforce ready to adopt TECS.