Hello, my name is Gill Bewick and I am a Specialist Nurse in Digital Health at the Newcastle Hospitals.
I see my role as acting as an Ambassador for the Trust’s Digital Health strategy, as we work towards excellence in the provision of digital solutions across the organisation with the ultimate aim of enhancing patient safety and clinical care as well as the experience for both patients and our staff.
From an internal perspective this means liaising between clinical and technical colleagues as we identify the need for, develop and implement new technology in clinical practice, supporting and guiding staff as new enhancements to our systems are introduced.
Externally I have the expertise and experience to support reference site visits by external NHS Trusts and corporate IT providers.
My digital journey
I have been a surgical nurse for most of my career starting as a staff nurse at Newcastle General Hospital progressing to ward leadership then the role of Matron in Surgical Services. After a few years my career aspirations took me in a different direction and I became Directorate Manager overseeing all Surgical Services across the Newcastle Hospitals Trust.
In 2005 the NHS began to introduce electronic health record systems in NHS Trusts – it took a number of years to deploy e:Record organisation-wide but my interest in digital health and the potential it holds grew as I saw its potential.
In 2009 I began working with the Trust’s Pharmacy team as a Project Nurse developing and implementing the Electronic Medication Administration Record within the new e:Record. I had no idea at that time that my role would develop over time into a full time post, leading the Clinical Informatics nursing team.
Following a brief retirement I returned part time and was thrilled to become part of the new Digital Health Team. In my role I can share a wealth of experience from my roles of nursing, operational management and introducing new digital systems, and provide guidance as the team supports their nursing, midwifery and AHP colleagues helping them to understand all the opportunities our digital systems can bring.
Embracing technology
I am passionate about nursing excellence alongside process improvement – embracing technology as an enabler for positive change.
It is vital that our IT systems are clinically driven and not seen as an IT tool which solely drives delivery and has been imposed on staff.
Whilst there is no doubt that intelligence gained from data can guide us towards performance improvements for the organisation, I am passionate about ensuring that our clinical staff develop their e:Health knowledge and see how the power of using the right IT application at the right time can optimise the delivery of safe, high quality patient care and support them towards making informed clinical decisions.
Contact us
Our Digital Health team is here to support all of our staff. If you have any burning issues or would like to get involved in our work we want to hear from you.
Email our Digital Health Team
