Review launched into digital readiness of nurses and midwives

A review into the digital readiness of nurses and midwives has been launched, with the aim of making sure that the workforce is technologically equipped for the future.

The Phillips Ives Nursing and Midwifery Review will be led by Dr Natasha Phillips, chief nursing information officer at NHS England. Dr Jeanette Ives Erickson will serve as an international vice-chair.

Building on the work of the 2019 Topol Review, it aims to determine the needs of the nursing and midwifery workforce to deliver health care in the digital age during the next five, 10 and 20 years. It will be conducted by Health Education England as part of its Digital Readiness Education Programme in partnership with NHS England.

The project’s leaders are calling on evidence from across the nursing and midwifery workforce as well as wider professions within the NHS and from abroad. The review is expected to take about a year to complete.

It is designed to support the achievement of the Chief Nursing Officer of England’s strategic aims:

• To ensure that nurses are empowered to practice and lead in a digitally-enabled health and social care system, now and in the future.
• To ensure nursing practice is fully supported by the use of digital technology and data science.

Addressing workforce, skills and training

The review will address four questions:

• How are technological and other developments likely to change the roles and functions of the nursing and midwifery workforce?
• What are the implications of the size, shape and skills of this workforce?
• What does this mean for selection, curricula, education, training, development and lifelong learning of the current and future nursing and midwifery workforce?
• What are the considerations for inclusion, equality and diversity?

It will focus in particular on topics such as workforce planning, AI and data science and emerging technologies and opportunities.

Natasha Phillips said: “Nurses and midwives are often the face of the NHS for the public, looking after patients and their families at the happiest times in their life, such as the birth of a child, and at some of the most difficult.

“As the NHS looks to the future and the increasing role played by digital and technology, it is important we ensure our nurses and midwives receive an education that will prepare them for the NHS of tomorrow.”

Ives Erickson said that the review was a “big and important initiative” and that it would “inform strategy, enhance safety and…embed efficiencies into systems of care delivery.”