July 2022
WELCOME TO THE NHS WALES
DIGITAL NURSING NEWSLETTER
This newsletter will help keep stakeholders informed of the standardisation and digitisation of nursing documentation in NHS Wales, as well as updates concerning the digital applications that nursing will be using.
Welsh Nursing Care Record- where we are now 👇

Update from Chief Nursing Information Officer, Digital Health & Care Wales, Fran Beadle

As you will all be aware the standardisation of nursing documentation has been the key to success not only to transitioning to digital ways of working for nurses but being able to identify the value nurses bring to patient care and with a focus on patient outcomes. Based on lessons learnt we have updated the Standard operating Procedure (SOP) for standardisation of nursing documentation and the process associated with it.

If you have any recommendations for standardisation of nursing documentation please email me on [email protected]

With the development of multiple national digital systems across health and care in Wales, it is important that nurses can influence the look and feel of digital systems to ensure that it meets the needs of nurses and midwives. This ensures we maintain the standardisation that we have all worked so hard to achieve through multi-disciplinary expert clinical consensus to support patients and citizens transitions of care.

Therefore, at Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) we have invested and grown our nursing and midwifery clinical informatics team to support ongoing developments and increase user engagement with our health board and trust colleagues to ensure we listen, meet expectations and translate these needs to our technical colleagues.
If you would like to speak to members of our DHCW clinical informatics team please contact them via their email addresses in the 'Meet the team' section below.

Standardisation Process
The standardisation of a nursing document follows key stages and begins with identifying a national group.
In some instances, there may be no national group and therefore one needs to be formed ensuring each health board and trust have representation from nursing and the wider multidisciplinary team.  

Work then begins to identify current processes and documentation to determine any similarities that are used to inform what the future document and processes can look like. Our aim is to transform the process and ensure that documentation is meaningful and not just replacing the paper for with a digital paper form. 
Once we have a recommendation and a digital design, this is then approved by the Chief Nursing Information Officers after discussion and review in their respective health boards and trusts.

Once we have an agreed recommendation and digital design, formal approval processes commence at all levels including health boards and trust, Directors of Nursing and then finally the Chief Nursing Officer who issues a Welsh health circular. It is only once those approvals are gained that digital development can begin, as you can appreciated this can take a significant amount of time depending on the type of form. 

If you have any recommendations for standardisation of nursing documentation please email [email protected].uk 
Meet the team
Geraint Walker – Critical Care, [email protected]

My name is Geraint Walker and I am working as a Clinical Informaticist for Nursing for the Welsh Intensive Care Information System (WICIS) project. I have worked as a nurse within critical care in Swansea Bay UHB since 2016. I have been involved in the WICIS project since 2018 firstly as a local nursing lead and now as national nursing lead. We are starting the roll out of the system to all Adult General Critical Care units across Wales starting in January 2023 at the Grange University Hospital in Aneurin Bevan UHB.
Peter Cumpstone – WCCIS Allied health, [email protected]

I am a qualified physiotherapist with over 16 years’ experience across Wales, with the last 4 being for DHCW as National Clinical Informatics Lead for Therapies. My role involves liaising with all clinical and programme staff across Wales and supporting them in the development of robust clinical data and easy to use clinical systems, all of which help to deliver better and more seamless care to the citizens under our care. I am a believer in user centred design for both data and digital systems and feel DHCW is integral to this vision and am proud to support our vision.
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Amy Mumford – Digital Medicines transformation Portfolio, [email protected]

I joined DHCW in May 2022 as Medicines Nurse Clinical Informaticist Lead, representing nursing on all aspects of the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio (DMTP).
I graduated from the University of South Wales in 2006 and prior to joining DHCW I worked in Velindre University NHS Trust for 4 years, and at Cwm Taf Morgannwg for 12 years, with experience in operational nurse management and corporate nursing roles. During my career to date, I have embraced many opportunities to learn and develop both academically and personally. I hold, a postgraduate diploma in Stroke Care from Leeds Metropolitan University, an MSc in Professional Practice from the University of South Wales and a Post Graduate Certificate in Health Research from the University of Bath. Some highlights of my career include the successful implementation of an innovative project supported by the Bevan Commission, to become a Bevan Examplar, and being supported by the Florence Nightingale Foundation throughout the Emerging Leaders Scholarship.
I realised my passion for digital transformation when representing Velindre University NHS Trust as the Nursing Informatics Specialist, working as part of the national team on the Welsh Nursing Care Record, and I am very excited to be part of the DMTP team as this exciting transformational work progresses.

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Anne Watkins- Maternity Cymru, [email protected]


Hi, I am Anne, the newly appointed Maternity Clinical Informaticist. Having trained initially as a Registered General Nurse in 1985 and later qualifying as a Midwife in 1991, I have gained 32 years of midwifery experience. I have worked across all aspects of maternity services at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, establishing an integrated Midwifery-Led Care Birth Centre, and worked locally and nationally on workstreams, delivering the maternity vision for Wales.
I hold an MSc from Cardiff University in Advanced Practice and Education for Health Professionals and am a Florence Nightingale Digital Leadership Alumni. Prior to joining DHCW, I worked as a Senior Midwife, where I sought to amplify the voices of both women and Midwives to ensure they are at the forefront of planning and delivering maternity services. My aim is to raise the digital technology profile across maternity services. I am committed to modernising the service and embracing innovation with enthusiasm. I believe that maternity services should be women-centred, clinically led and supported by digital transformation.
Kevin O’Sullivan- Electronic Test requesting, [email protected]

My name is Kevin and I am the clinical informaticist for electronic test requesting.
I come from Ireland, where I completed my medical degree and foundation training. After completing my foundation training, I decided that my passion was bringing technology into healthcare. I moved to Wales to study a MSc in Health Informatics at Swansea University and graduated earlier this year. Also completing my masters were many DHCW and health board staff, who spoke very highly of working for the NHS in Wales.

This led me to seeking a job with DHCW, which I started in November 2021, working on current and future systems within NHS Wales.

Having a background in medicine, I am passionate about improving frontline care, and believe that informatics is the key to improvement in the coming years. Working on electronic test requesting is particularly suited to me as it was a daily nuisance in my life as a junior doctor, and I understand the value that can be added by an efficient system. Every day comes with new challenges, but I am fortunate to work with a very experienced and enthusiastic team. I love to apply my knowledge of clinical care and informatics solutions, to design and implement world-leading systems, directly impacting patient care nationally.
Barry Morgan- WCCIS Mental Health, [email protected]


A registered mental health nurse with 20 years’ experience across several specialities, both in NHS and private sector.

I have been working for 3 years in the clinical informatics team in the capacity of the mental health clinical professional supporting the development of WCCIS collaborating with Welsh Government, health boards/trust and still continue to learn every day in the world of clinical informatics
Recently became a College of Healthcare Information Management Executives CHIME) accredited health informatics professional.
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Sara Lucano Araujo- Single Care Record, [email protected]


Hi, my name is Sara and I’m the lead clinical informaticist for the Single Care Record. Plain-speaking, it means that I will be overseeing the systems that form the single patient record to ensure that we head towards the same goal: a standardised and aligned care journey for the patients anywhere in Wales.
 I graduated back in 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. I studied for an MSc in Critical Care and moved to the UK in 2014. I’ve been working in Orthopaedics and Adult Critical Care and there is when I discovered eHealth. I then joined Great Ormond Street Hospital as a Configuration Analyst. I was part of the exciting journey of creating a new Electronic Patient Record and I've been able to use my experience in DHCW.
 I am now enjoying a new path in my career, and I am learning something new every day. I’m looking forward to seeing this project grow and see it becoming a leading system for eHealth.

Bev Havard-Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR), [email protected]

I qualified as a RGN from Swansea University in 1998. Worked in Morriston Hospital (Renal) until 2018 with the last 8 years as the ward manager. Moved to Neath Port Talbot(Sub-Acute Medicine) as the ward manager; during which time we rolled out the WNCR project on my ward which gave me the interest in the efficacy of the project and the difference the change makes to patient care. 
 July 2022 I was seconded to DHCW as the clinical Nursing informaticist supporting the WNCR project. I am currently in the process of engaging with all members of the team as well as the Chief Nursing Information Officers of each Health Boards within Wales. 
 
Abigail Swindail-Clinical Informatics Lead Children and Community Services

Hi, I’m Abi, the Clinical Informatics Lead for Community & Children’s Services – your contact for anything nursing in the community that isn’t mental health!
I work mainly on the Welsh Community Care information system (WCCIS) application workstream, but also have input on other systems as required, to ensure a seamless link between primary, secondary and community care. My involvement with WCCIS started as I Vice Chaired the Health Visiting development group in 2020-21, and as a lay member of the group way back in 2017-18.
I have had a varied experience across acute and community settings since becoming a Registered Nurse in 2003. I have worked in challenging parts of the community as a District Nurse, Prison Nurse, and a Health Visitor, latterly as the Health Manager for Flying Start in Vale of Glamorgan.
I joined DHCW in August 2021 on a secondment, having now secured a substantive post in May 2022.
System Updates


Mental Health- Welsh Community Care Information System (WCCIS)

  • WCCIS for mental health continues to be developed and our current priority is the the mental health data set, which has been identified as a deliverable from Together for Mental Health. The data set has been agreed and will be piloted in Quarter 3 of this year (October- December).

  • Work continues on the development of an all-Wales Mental Health assessment but is nearing completion and will be available in WCCIS, by the end of Quarter 2 (September).

  • Collaboration continues with other speciality mental health groups developing information standards for multiple new assessment forms that will go through health board and trust governance processes for approval.

District Nursing (DN) WCCIS
  • ·Digital Investment Priorities Fund awarded for DN digital transformation work in November 2021
  • Active recruitment of administrative and Business Analysts resources who will be based across the WCCIS programme team and transformation project.
  •  Continued standardisation of nursing documentation for district nurses 
 Aims of the project:
  • To standardise the national process for District Nursing
  • To standardise national documentation dossier for District Nursing
  •  To standardise data collection as part of the Nursing process
  •  Current work:
  •  Welsh Levels of Care work to be scoped, joint meeting with HEIW to discuss requirements for WCCIS.

 
Intensive Care- Welsh Intensive Care Information System (WICIS)
  • Recent site visits have been undertaken in CWM Taf University Health Board and Swansea Bay University Health Board to look at medical device integration and nursing workflow
  • User Acceptance Testing is in progress and runs until October. We are still looking for critical care staff to help support with testing of the system
  •  Local Implementation Nurse roles for Cardiff and Vale UHB and Swansea Bay UHB will be advertised at the end of the year to support with the roll out of the system within these health boards
  • Roadshows are being planned for Aneurin Bevan UHB, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB and Cardiff and Vale UHB in October 2022
 
Florence Nightingale Scholars

This year's successful Florence Nightingale scholars and their digital projects are:

Bethan Hawkes, Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse, NHS Wales Health Collaborative –E Holistic Needs Assessment

Katherine Fisher Jenkins, Midwife, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board - Improving Quality and Safety in Postnatal Care through Digital Resources for Families.

Lisa Graham Deputy Head of Nursing - Medicine, Swansea Bay University Health Board - Electronic Risks and Safety dashboard

Mathew Brayford, Clinical Lead, Headroom Youth Psychosis, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board – Welsh Carer Support and Education Programme for Psychosis.

Susan Dinsdale, - Assistant Divisional Nurse, Families and Therapies, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Healthier Together supporting digital educational tools for paediatric transition to adult services

Sarah Tingle, Health visitor Team leader, Hywel Dda University Health Board – Developing an effective and efficient caseload management system that supports integration and digitalisation within the health visiting service

Congratulations to all scholars!

Could you be our budding next digital leader?

If so, keep your eyes peeled over the coming months for next year's applications for the Florence Nightingale Digital Scholarships that can be found here Scholarships – Florence Nightingale Foundation (florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk)
 
The Nursing & Midwifery digital & clinical informatics advisory group
The All Wales Nursing & Midwifery digital & clinical informatics advisory group is a sub-group of the All Wales Executive Nurse Directors Group.

The main aims of the group are to provide leadership and advice to the CNO and Executive Nurse Directors in relation to:

  • Digital Professionalism & Leadership and Advocacy 

  • Data and Information quality driving information enabled patient care, quality improvement, assurance & learning 

  • Education & research. Building confidence and competence – using digital technology in practice 

  • Collaboration & communication to promote clinical nursing and midwifery clinical informatics related issues 

The chair is Sharon Daniels, Assistant Director of Nursing Hywel Dda with Vice Chair, Fran Beadle Chief Nursing Information officer, DHCW.

The inaugural meeting was held in November 2021 and if you have any suggestions, questions or advice to ask the group please feel free to email

Sharon Daniel (Hywel Dda UHB - Assistant Director of Nursing) <[email protected]> or

Frances Beadle (DHCW - Health & Social Care) <[email protected]>
Useful tips


Look out for icon on the left, this will appear on your desktop and take you directly in to the Welsh Nursing Care Record application.


An On Demand Training Centre is now available for WNCR where you can find more guidance and helpful tips.