Director of nursing and national clinical leads for nursing

Dr Susan Hamer – Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals

Susan graduated in nursing in 1980 working as a district nurse in London before moving to the University of Hull as a lecturer. Since then she has held a variety of academic and practice based posts and in 2004, became Director of Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Leeds.

Susan has published widely, and is the co author of two books: Achieving Evidence Based Practice and Leadership and Management: A 3 dimensional Approach. She is also co editor of Practice Development in Health Care, a journal which aims to promote scholarly debate in the field of Practice Development. She has been involved in the establishment of over 150 practice development units and continues to be an active coach and mentor. Her doctoral studies were in the field of post compulsory education. She is a fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute.

Susan is passionate about the possibilities for technology to enhanced practice and to support innovation in the development of patient led services. As a member of the Clinical team Susan is keen to ensure that new and effective models of professional practice are shared rapidly across the health system.

Anne Cooper - National Clinical Lead for Nursing

Anne started her career in nursing, working in cardiology and chest medicine where she was a ward sister before moving into general management, focusing on complaints management and developing approaches to deal with feedback from patients.

Later, at NHS Direct, Anne worked as part of a team setting up the service in West Yorkshire before specialising in IT system development in a national role at NHS Direct. During her time, Anne developed an IT skills competency framework for nursing.

This was followed by a role as regional programme manager to support local healthcare providers to develop diabetes services in line with the National Service Framework requirements for care.

Anne has been involved in informatics since her time at NHS Direct.  As a result, she accepted a post working with the Summary Care Record programme team, providing clinical advice, design input and clinical leadership.

Other areas of interest include, information governance and in particular, ensuring that patient confidentiality is protected throughout the introduction and long term use of technology to improve clinical care. 

Anne currently holds the post of national clinical lead for nursing, providing clinical leadership in the development of informatics policy and works across the health and education sectors to build relationships with strategic partners.

Informatics skills assessment for clinical professionals

Use this self assessment framework (PDF, 471Kb) to guide you on how to use information and technology in your practice and to support you in developing competence in these areas. Key symbols have been identified in areas of practice where the use of information and technology are particularly important.

Top information links for nurses

• NHS Summary Care Record (NHS SCR)
• NHS Care Record Service (NHS CRS)
• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
• NHS Number
• 'Making a positive difference', a joint article by Julie Tindale and Barbara Stuttle on engagement with nurses, midwives and AHPs.

The benefits of the National Programme for IT to nurses

Barbara Stuttle and Susan Osborne explain the benefits for nurses of the National Programme for IT (PPT 1.3Mb).

We welcome your views

How ready is your organisation to implement these technologies locally and get maximum benefit from them for your patients and staff? What barriers are in your way, and how can we help you overcome them? Susan Hamer welcome your views and opinions. Contact her at: nurselead@nhs.net.

Useful links

• Connecting with midwives - find out about how National Clinical Lead Julie Tindale is working closely with the midwifery profession to support the introduction of new IT systems.
• NHS Care Records Service - a 'switch on' guide for the nursing and midwifery community
• A RCN leaflet encouraging nurses to become more involved with new computer systems and services in the NHS has been welcomed by NHS Connecting for Health
• The e-Health Nurses Network is an independent initiative, freely open to all nurses and health and social care colleagues with an interest in developing e-health in order to maximise the professional delivery of effective patient care.
• • Susan works closely with Christine Beasley, Department of Health Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and regularly contribute updates to the monthly CNO bulletin.

National Clinical Leads

A team of National Clinical Leads across a variety of specialties have been appointed to lead on the planning and preparation for the successful implementation of the National Programme for IT.

They communicate between the Programme and the NHS in both directions and have a comprehensive knowledge, understanding and influence of and into the Programme.