Marina Copping our Consultant Clinical Informatician discusses International Nurses Day.

International Nurses Day is on Sunday 12 May. In the lead up to this important day, join us in celebrating the economic power of care and service excellence embodied by our nurses and the transformative impact they have on the future of nursing in Scotland.

In today’s piece from our colleague Marina Copping, Consultant Clinical Informatician within Digital and Security (DaS), we’re showcasing our nursing colleagues who are working in essential roles that wouldn’t usually be associated with the nursing profession.

Of her career journey, Marina said: “Society often considers nursing as being simply a hospital-based role. But nursing is so much more than this. “My initial nursing background was in adult nursing, oncology and health visiting. I then specialised in Informatics (a blend of all things information and data) but from a patient and clinical centred approach.

“My current role has many responsibilities.” said Marina. “One of which is conducting digital clinical safety cases to evaluate the safety of clinical technology and providing a detailed report of my findings and recommendations. For example, this could be for a new screening system for patients.”

Evidence shows that better use of data, information and technology can be beneficial to improving the care we deliver in NHSScotland.

However, Marina acknowledges that this isn’t something that can be achieved by her alone and emphasised the importance of support from colleagues. In particular, the support of leadership in identifying digital safety solutions and support from nursing colleagues, which are an essential part of the clinical engagement required.

Although health technologies (including medical devices and artifical intelligence) can enable us to deliver safe, efficient and patient centred care, research has identified that 75% of IT related patient safety incidents could have been preventable.

Marina added: “My role in leading safety reviews can identify many of these potential harms to patients before safety tools are deployed. This can reduce the risk of harm to patients, the public, and communities. Clinical involvement in safety reviews to include nurses is an essential part of achieving this and should be invested in."

Marina concluded: “Nursing involvement in digital safety measures would reduce the cost to NHSScotland by enabling us to make sure that these safety measures are done right the first time and ultimately, support us to save lives.”

#IND2024 #OurNursesOurFuture