Nurses have a pivotal role to play in the widespread implementation and adoption of digital health technologies throughout the healthcare sector for the primary purpose of improving safety and quality of patient care.
Australian Health Journal talked with two of Australian top leaders in nursing and in digital health on how the role of nursing is pivotal to the success of digital health in the Australian health system.
Firstly, Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward, CEO of Australian College of Nursing (ACN) spoke about the ACN Nurse Informatics and Digital Health Faculty bringing together a group of nurses with a common interest in nursing informatics and digital health technologies. The faculty members work together to solve problems, share knowledge, cultivate best practice and foster innovation in this important area of healthcare. Kylie stresses, “The more that the digital platforms can assist nurses to spend time educating supporting, monitoring and investing in the people that they serve, the more enabled and empowered they are to do their job.”
Also in the joint interview, Amanda Cattermole, CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) spoke about how, “Nurses have been great early adopters of digital health technologies. The uptake being driven further during COVID”. The ADHA provides information to help clinician digital health literacy through webinars, face to face meetings, education supports and tools, as well as the colleges and peak organisations across the sector for their workforces.
Kylie pointed out, even with digital health technologies there is an important role nurses play with their intuition, intellect and the heart. None of these can be automated. However the success of digital health is also down to the inclusion of nurses and nursing leadership in the design and co-design of digital health tools in the future. Amanda added, “This includes the structured learning and in the moment learning on the job. “
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Foundation outlines breast cancer research strategy
Australian Health Journal met with Associate Professor Cleola Anderiesz, CEO of the National Breast Cancer Foundation to hear of the new 5 year Pink Horizon research strategy. Those with lived experience of breast cancer, along with researchers, clinicians, and other funding organisations, have contributed to the development of the foundation’s new five-year Pink Horizon research strategy. This ambitious plan aims to invest $125 million to accelerate research efforts towards the vision of ending deaths from breast cancer.
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Clinical pain neuroscientist talks about how the brain processes pain information
Persistent pain affects one in five Australians and costs the nation an estimated $73 billion per year in health system costs, lost productivity and other financial costs.
Persistent pain also has debilitating personal costs – negatively impacting quality of life and the ability to engage in meaningful work and life activities.
Despite the enormity of this problem, very few effective treatments exist with most showing only small to moderate improvements. New treatments are desperately needed. The group believes the best way to create impactful change is to work with people with lived experience of persistent pain to devise solutions with them, not for them.
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HIGHLIGHTS The power of social determinants of health, panel discussion
Clinicians and consumers know only too well that life circumstances such as poor housing, income and food insecurity can have a negative impact on health outcomes. Conversely, participation in community activities, social connection and access to nature parks and leisure facilities can help maintain health and wellbeing.
More recent phenomena in public health have also focused us on the health and social care connection. Stress factors such as the sudden loss of employment and social interaction, moving to remote work or schooling, and the impacts of sudden, localised COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ to prevent further outbreaks were triggers of increased psychological distress.
And loneliness is being described as our latest epidemic with chronic loneliness inked to a myriad of health problems and earlier death. A recent report found one in four Australians say they feel persistently lonely, and that loneliness costs $2.7 bn a year in health costs alone.
