A week in the life of an Informatics Lead Nurse: Wednesday

Read about day 3 of Roda Luz Trinidad's week in her life.

What I love about my work is that I have the flexibility to work from home when necessary. Wednesday is always full of back-to-back meetings. I see to it that I have regular breaks in between sessions. It is important to take care of our health and well-being even on a virtual environment. Read on to find out more about a typical Wednesday in my role.

First up is the Critical Care Informatics Board which is a gathering of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) within the critical care network for the trust in preparation for the next project phase, intensive care unit (ICU) digitisation. A big part of the agenda is my demonstration of the workflow for invasive lines and devices to get the team to understand the system better and agree on a user-centred design philosophy moving forward in terms of change and system development. 

Next is the change approval board meeting. Here we review and evaluate change requests for workflow optimisation and make recommendations to improve processes. I presented the request I have been working on with the tracheostomy working group on the optimisation of the way we document tracheostomy care in millennium. The change was approved which is a big win for the team who has been pushing for the safe use of tracheostomy care documentation in the trust. 

An update from the electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA) pharmacists on the newly developed Warfarin care plan. They provided some data and assurance on prescribing and medicines administration in the Trust and highlighted were we need to target training to always ensure safety. 

I joined various other meetings like the practice development nurses forum and the site nursing informatics steering group. It is important for me to be visible and listen to the feedback from the point of care staff as well as the digital champions on how we can improve our work processes to influence practice and ensure staff are happy and patients receive quality care using data and technology. 

Barts Health NHS Trust is one of the biggest Trust in the UK with 5 hospitals. We have a link nurse on the 3 sites, I cover Royal London and Mile End hospitals. As a group leadership model, relationships and collaboration between sites is key. We have a weekly informatics lead nurse meeting to catch up on what’s happening, any issues or concerns, new change requests needing input and how we can support each other. 

The last meeting of the day is with the change lead and a millennium representative. Here, I act as the link between the point of care staff, the clinical systems team, and our provider. We make sure that the changes requested are feasible, aimed at safety and would be developed to meet the requirements of staff and patients. We make suggestions and what is possible and how we can make the system work better.