Taking nursing into the digital space

The Australian College of Nursing is excited to continue launching new Graduate Certificates as part of our ongoing commitment to advancing leadership in the evolving areas of nursing.

One of these in 2022 has been the Graduate Certificate in Digital Health, a course that provides nurses with the resources and skills to take their nursing into the digital space, with the area becoming more expansive as technology continues to develop.

With the first intake of students starting in July 2022, Graduate Certificate of Digital Health Course Coordinator Ross Pancho MACN shared with us the must-knows of digital health.

What is Digital Health?

Digital health is an umbrella referring to a range of technologies that can be used to treat and manage patients and collect and share a person’s health information using different accessible and relevant technologies (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2020). Most of these widely used technologies to assist with patient health information management include My Health Records (MHR), fitness trackers, smart watches, wellness apps, electronic admission and discharge summaries and medical drones, to name a few.

Utilising digital health promotes the best approach to access health information safely, efficiently and in a timely way.

Why is digital health important to the future of nursing?

With everything that we do now heavily relying on technological and digital advancement, it is expected that the transition and integration of health care and patient outcome deliveries will be dependent on digitalisation and digital health. We may not be aware, but the majority of Australians rely on the internet to research, communicate and consult their health issues (AIHW, 2020).

This need for digital health information greatly ties up with the advancement of digital health awareness and its implementation in the Australian health care system. As nurses, we are bound to appreciate and utilise the evolving era of digitalisation in healthcare that is already embedded in our daily work tasks. The key to providing an efficient and safe patient care delivery is paramount and digital health will be the perfect way to deliver uncompromised patient care outcomes.

What skills can course graduates contribute to the workplace?

Learning the foundations, applications and outcomes of studying digital health will equip you with the right skills and knowledge to execute safe patient care using digitalisation and technology applications. This course will provide you with the necessary tools to adapt and use digital health competently in the healthcare system and apply it to your daily work.

The course is designed to scaffold your learning from understanding the basics of data and its application to conducting project management in digital health and its application to the health care systems. Learning digital health will be an indispensable asset and will open up various opportunities in the workplace relating to health informatics specialty, project management, or becoming an information officer. The possibilities are limitless.

What makes this course unique from other courses in digital health?

This course is designed to cater to the target students who are nurses and who will be championing the use and utilisation of digital health across the health care sector. We understand that studying digital health can be offered to any qualified health care professionals who will use them in their daily work tasks, but we, as nurses’ advocates, would like to focus on the specialised application of digital health centred on our nurses’ work needs.

The content of our Graduate Certificate in Digital Health also supports a diverse group of people and how digital health can be utilised by nurses to support people with disability and specific needs.

About your Coordinator (Ross Pancho MACN, he/him)

Ross is currently working as a nurse educator for higher education at the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and will be taking over the role as the course coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Health. Ross has been working for over 15 years as a clinical nurse and academics. Ross has a diverse experience in clinical work, including cardiothoracic and vascular surgery pre- and post-operative specialty, neurosurgical post-op care, general surgery and aged care specialty. His major specialty in education revolves around re-registration of Internationally Qualified Nurses (IQNs) to Australia and teaching for Diploma of Nursing course which he has done for most of his education experience. He also looks after the Graduate Certificate in Cosmetic and Dermatology Nursing at ACN.

Ross’s academic qualification includes, Bachelor of Nursing (2004), Masters in Nursing (Clinical Education) and Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE40116). He is also currently undertaking the Graduate Certificate in Digital Health at RMIT which is projected to complete by 2023. Ross’s dedication for digitalisation and support is evident on his accomplishments across his clinical and education roles and hoping that he will be able to advocate and support the students who will be joining the course.

References:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2020). Digital health. AIHW. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/digital-health