Welcome to Information in Nursing news
Published: 12 May 2010
Our first totally paper-free newsletter!
Alison Wallis, wearing two e-hats for the next few months, brings you an update on the state of eHealth UK-wide. And as befits the newsletter from the RCN’s specialist IT forum, no trees have been harmed in its production!
Bernice Baker, Chair of the Information in Nursing Forum Steering Committee, is taking a break from her duties owing to health problems and I am filling in as acting Chair for a few months to allow Bernice time to get back to full health. As I am still fulfilling the role of Editor you are getting two letters rolled into one.
This seems to be a period of uncertainty for eHealth in England, while events in Wales and Scotland are forging ahead as you will see in articles featured elsewhere.
Two reports have been published relating to eHealth in England, both pre-election:
- The Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England put information management and technology firmly in the frame (please note this is now archived content).
- Fixing NHS IT: A plan of action for a new government was published in March by 2020health - an independent "think tank", which can be found on the 2020health website.
In Scotland two important announcements were made at the end of March:
- a large investment in telecare will support more older people to remain at home
- a national contract for a hospital patient management system aims to streamline acute hospital information management.
Welsh Primary Care eHealth has also had a boost with announcements regarding e-referrals and PRISM, predicting risk of unplanned hospital admissions.
Proceedings in Northern Ireland seem to be moving more slowly, but without being too mysterious, I am informed that an important report is due to be released in the next few weeks – look out for that in Northern Ireland.
Speaking up for nursing
Nursing appears to be at the periphery of these reports and developments. Nevertheless I am sure nurses will be impacted upon - for example, by the Welsh PRISMS system and by the patient management system in Scotland - so it is important to make sure that we are adequately represented wherever possible.
The RCN eHealth Programme, IN Forum members and RCN staff UK-wide are working hard to make the “voice of nursing” heard. However, it is important that nurses on the ground also keep their eyes and ears open for developments and policies in their own areas and consider their impact on the profession.
Committee update
The steering committee has not been hibernating through the long hard winter. Three forum members were elected unopposed to the steering committee last year and we have had an induction meeting and teleconferences to get to know each other and start planning our next projects.
Upcoming events
We have also been working with the RCN eHealth Programme to plan eHealth conferences sponsored by Intel. Attendance at the event in Scotland on 25 March was almost at capacity and Sharon Levy has provided a report.
There are also plans to run a fringe workshop at some RCN events called Too scared to e-care - Record IT. One of these workshops took place at congress. These aim of the workshops is to focus on information governance and record keeping – how do nurses ensure that patient records are adequate to fulfil legal requirements, especially when sharing information across systems?
Since Professor Dame June Clark left the steering committee we are missing a representative from Wales which means we have no source of news items from there so do feel free to contribute items no matter where you live and work.
This is our first fully electronic edition of the newsletter so it may have a different feel and look from the usual paper one – I hope you enjoy it!