Digital Nursing Summit 2023: The Phillips Ives Nursing and Midwifery Review

At the recent Digital Nursing Summit, held at Digital Health Rewired, members of The Phillips Ives Nursing and Midwifery Review participated in a panel session, chaired by Sarah Newcombe, the Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) at Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The findings and recommendations of The Phillips Ives Nursing and Midwifery Review, which will determine the needs of the nursing and midwifery workforce to deliver health care in the digital age for the next 5, 10 and 20 years, will be published in May 2023. 

The members of the The Phillips Ives Review team making up the panel were:

• Dr Natasha Phillips, Review Chair and CNIO, NHS England
• Tracey Eyre, Programme Lead for Nursing and The Phillips Ives Review, NHS Digital Academy
• Helen Balsdon, Acting CNIO, NHS England
• Dr Gemma Stacey, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Director of Research and Policy, Florence Nightingale Foundation and Co-Chair of Review panel 2, person centred
• Professor Laura Serrant OBE, Regional Head of Nursing, north east and Yorkshire, Workforce, Training and Education, NHS England and Co-Chair of Review panel 3, practice and development

The panel session saw an excellent turnout of attendees who heard members of the Review team answer the key question: how should we prepare our nurses and midwives for the digital future?

When discussing why the Review is necessary, Tracey emphasised the importance of harnessing the power of digital and technology and what can be done in the digital space to support the current and future health and care workforce. Tracey also acknowledged that one of the main challenges in transformation is the clinical digital literacy of the workforce and the need to have leadership which supports the development, training, and education of the whole and specialist workforce in this area.

In addition, Dr Gemma Stacey reflected upon the need to ensure that the medium of technology and the power of data is utilised in a way that means the nursing profession can use the potential of science to enhance the art of practice. This will allow the workforce to personalise the care of the individual, family or community and inform how services are designed in the future to support the wellbeing of populations. Professor Laura Serrant highlighted the need for equity of access and inclusivity to the appropriate educational opportunities and specialist careers to ensure a breadth of knowledge and expertise is supported for our diverse workforce.

The panel spoke about the role of leadership in guaranteeing the findings and recommendations of the Review are understood and achieved, whilst Review Chair Dr Natasha Phillips stated that leaders have the responsibility to educate and prepare the workforce for the new era of health and care in which digital, technology and data will enable safe, effective care.

The panel concluded their session with a reflection from  Dr Natasha Phillips, stating that we have a responsibility to prepare the future workforce and make way for the next generation of nurses and midwives where digital technology and data science is fundamental to the way health and care will be delivered

The findings and co-designed recommendations of the Review have been agreed based on extensive evidence gathering and engagement with the workforce. This has been achieved through wide-scale engagement across a range of methods allowing for a large consultation. The panel and whole Review team are grateful for the input of the workforce throughout the Review, particularly for submissions to the consultation platform throughout the evidence gathering phase.

The Review is now in its final stages and preparation is well underway for the official launch of its findings and recommendations. Some initial recommendations have already been made, which focus on the need for education and training of the workforce on digital capabilities to occur from the very beginning of their career at undergraduate level and continue all the way through to senior leadership. The recommendations of the Review can be transferrable across all health and care professions.