Book Launch

The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that they would perform unaided if they had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. And to do this in such a way as to help them gain independence s rapidly as possible. (Virginia Henderson)?

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This is our core purpose but the way we do this is changing and the pace of change is accelerating. From remote models of care enabled by technology like wearable devices and patient generated information shared through portals, to the routine use of electronic health records which provide clinical decision support and data to drive operational improvement and be used for research.?

Healthcare is undergoing a digital revolution that will affect all nurses and midwives and the learning from the review that they are not currently?being armed with the knowledge and skills to take an active role. The FNF digital scholarships were a first step in meeting this need but reach a tiny fraction of the 750,000 nurses on the register.

How else could we rapidly upskill this workforce?

When I was CNIO for England I always encouraged my team to think strategically but also act tactically to accelerate change while we developed longer term strategic solutions.?And so when an opportunity came up to work with the Florence Nightingale Foundation and Elsevier this seemed like an ideal chance to create a text that would support nurses too upskill themselves .?Gemma Stacey, Deputy CEO Florence Nightingale Foundation and I imagined a book that would introduce all nurses to the concepts of using technology to enhance practice and using data from digital systems to both support care and advance practice.??We had a view that the book would go beyond the existing nursing informatics texts that are targeted at the specialist digital nurse workforce. It would reflect the breadth of the ways digital, and data is changing the practice of all nurses.?Thanks to FNF’s partnership with Elsevier we could make that book a reality. We brought Professor Dawn Dowding, a national leader, trailblazer and expert, onboard to form a powerful editorial team. What a huge undertaking we set ourselves but how proud we all are of the result.?

The book intentionally starts with the issues of person-centred practice exploring: the art of caring, people taking control of their own health information?and issues of inclusion. These chapters ground the work of digital transformation in nursing theory and practice?

?The book then goes on to examine issues of workforce and leadership from digital literacy to our individual responsibilities and how we collectively lead the agenda?

It explores the practical issues of implementing the technology we are using today from EPR’s to remote care.

It examines how we advance practice with digital innovation exploring improvement science, data utilisation and research in an applied way.?

It goes further to explore the role of the nurse entrepreneur; we hope this will inspire and enable a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. Thank you, Stacey Hatton,?one of an even smaller group of pioneers, nurse entrepreneurs, for writing this chapter.?

?In the final chapters, it looks to the future exploring how genomics and AI are changing the work of nursing and how that will evolve further calling out how nursing?plays its?part in that.?

The book is evidence based but practical in nature and is filled with learning exercises to support nurses to apply the knowledge to their own area of practice.?

?We brought together a stellar cast of nurses across practice education and research who are pioneers in these fields generating the new knowledge that will shape our practice. We are delighted that they agreed to contribute to this book. Many are here today, and some are now going to tell you about their contributions.?

I am very grateful to Elsevier for making this important book possible and to all the nurses who gave up their free time to contribute to it. They have done the profession a great service.?The editorial team and all the authors hope it will become a core text for all nurses from students to clinical nurse specialists, executive nurse leaders and those who choose to specialise in digital healthcare.?

While we await the publication of the strategic document, the Phillips Ives Review and the implementation of its recommendations for undergraduate and postgraduate education, I hope this book might play its part in bridging the current education gap providing new knowledge for the whole nursing workforce. An idea that started as one of a series of tactical interventions to support the profession may in fact become a strategic enabler and a legacy for future generations of nurses.?

Harnessing Digital Technology and Data for Nursing Science is available to purchase now.

Harnessing Digital Technology and Data for Nursing Practice - 1st Edition | Elsevier Shop