Hello, my name is Keighley Shilling and I am a Digital Health Specialist Nurse at the Newcastle Hospitals.
The main aspects of my role involve working with my clinical colleagues to promote and help improve our digital health systems – to ensure they work for those who use them, ultimately bridging the gap between the clinical world and the IT world.
This is essential to ensure systems can work efficiently and effectively for everyone involved.
I am also committed to ensuring that digital poverty does not affect the standard of care we provide or incur any additional financial burden to both patients and staff.
My digital journey
I qualified in 2014 with my nursing career starting on a colorectal surgical ward at the RVI. I soon progressed to being junior sister and my passion for digital health was ignited during my time in this role.
When the opportunity to join the Digital Health Team as a specialist nurse became available, I jumped at the chance.
I’m greatly invested in how we can enhance patient care, safety and staff work life by adopting a digital way of working. This was amplified during Covid as it gave us all the opportunity to look at our systems in more depth to better understand what they really are capable of.
Since my time in the Digital Health Team it’s become apparent that we need to create a digital workplan that works for all our staff and not just those working on and developing the systems.
Although digital may seem daunting for some it is important to remember that any changes or updates on our systems are vigorously tested prior to going live. This ensures that any changes or developments are absolutely safe for both staff and patients, are suitable for the purpose of the implementation and that workload is not increased or made more complex. Our team is here to make sure our colleagues understand and are reassured by those processes.
Digital Health really excites me as it has so much potential, and we are only seeing the very tip at present.
Newcastle Hospitals excels with patient care, which is amazing to be a part of. However, it is important now that we also start to excel on staff workload. Enabling staff to do what they need to do as safely and efficiently as possible will not only help the workload burden but also help staff to spend more quality time with their patients.
Help us help you
Today we have an ever growing and evolving digital world with more and more applications being generated for every day life such as online booking systems, online banking, and the general use of smartphones.
These digital applications are embraced and seen to be amazing by many, whilst others are more apprehensive despite being eager to adopt them. If you find digital aspects difficult and/or confusing, or just have a general dislike of all things technological, it’s really important that you seek support.
We want to ensure that all our colleagues can meet their potential and overcome any barriers or simply have a better experience working with greater confidence in the digital environment.
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
