A review of nursing and midwifery in NHS England has reportedly called for a major investment to build specialist digital skills among nurses.
The Phillips Ives Review, which has not yet been published, has called for more relevant investment in the workforce and education reforms, according to a report in Nursing Times, which said it has seen the report.
The review reportedly says that, to take full advantage of technology developments, nurses will need to develop new skills in areas such as AI and data science.
It adds that over the next 20 years digital and data will increasingly support person centred care. But current models of education in nursing and midwifery a “not generally designed to develop and maintain digital literacy” and do not equip students with an understanding of the relevant ethical issues.
Some education providers offer no digital health and care learning at all, it says. This could all lead to a severe shortage of digital nurses.
Among the proposals is that AI, digital technology and data science should be embedded into the education curriculum for nurses; and that there should be practice placements associated with digital nursing, virtual wards and data teams. There should also be a defined digital competency and capability framework for training programmes, relevant to current practice and with the scope to adapt to changes.
