Ten nurses and midwives will take up the opportunity to become leaders in digital health at Flinders University under a new partnership for subsidised places in the Graduate Certificate in Digital Health Management.
The 12-month, part-time course gives South Australian nurses and midwives working in the public sector new skills to make the most of the rapidly changing digital health landscape.
It will help them to gain a deeper understanding in designing, developing, delivering and managing their digital and virtual health environments using the latest technologies, says Associate Professor Angie Shafei, Director of Healthcare Administration Programs at the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University.
“This partnership will foster a powerful combination of health care management and digital competency development for SA Health nurses, midwives, clinicians, administrators, financial, technical and policy-makers,” says Associate Professor Shafei.
“Flinders University has been supporting academic and professional leadership development of South Australia’s health care nursing and midwifery managers and leaders for more than 20 years, and we look forward to our continued and evolving efforts in developing contemporary, digitally enabled, future-ready graduates.”
SA Health and Flinders University are each subsidising course fees to attract nurses and midwives to the course and support the delivery of high-quality care for current and future generations.
Advances in digital healthcare have driven significant change over the past five years, including the rapid expansion of virtual health services across the public health system.
It has also driven technical innovations in our hospitals such as virtual reality headsets to train surgeons, and artificial intelligence to manage chronic illness.
The next course starts in August, with SA Health’s North Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer Tina Cockburn supporting the new skills opportunity.
“NALHN recognises the important role digital innovation plays in enhancing the quality of our services and the care we provide to the community,” says Ms Cockburn.
“I look forward to starting the course to develop my digital health management skills so I can continue to champion and progress innovations in digital health at NALHN that will benefit the nursing and midwifery workforce as well as the community.”
SA Health Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Adjunct Associate Professor Jenny Hurley, says digital technology has the potential to transform the healthcare system, deliver better patient outcomes and ease demand in our hospitals.
“This specially designed course will place our nurses and midwives at the cutting edge of innovation in digital and virtual healthcare services,” says Associate Professor Hurley.
“As frontline staff delivering patient care across our hospitals, this will ensure they have opportunities to play a key role in the evolution of our services.
“This unique opportunity is recognition of the strength of our relationship and partnership with Flinders University.”