Emma Collins: Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2023 finalist

eHealthNews.nz: Clinical Informatics

Emma Collins: Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2023 finalist

Thursday, 19 October 2023

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PROFILE - Emma Collins, senior professional practice, Women's and Children's Health, Otago University

Judges comment
“Collins promotes the integration of the science that underpins clinical practice with its information and knowledge. She demonstrates the management and use of information and communication technologies to promote the health of people, whānau, and communities across the motu. Only with collaborative leadership such as Collins' will more providers and leaders understand the impact of digital health.”

Nominator’s quote
“Collins is universally respected for her thoughtful, respectful and timely contributions and her ability to work with others, showing her personal competence and capability of collaboration, which irrespective of technology, still underpins health informatics.”

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Profile
Emma Collins works in both clinical and education roles. Her clinical practice is as a registered nurse in child health/ paediatrics in Dunedin Hospital at Te Whatu Ora Southern. She also works in the education sector as a senior professional practice fellow with the Department of Women's and Children's Health, at Otago University.

Collins has been active in nursing informatics for over ten years and has been a leader in the use of electronic portfolios for nursing, predominantly in education. She has supported the use of e-learning and curriculum mapping in the academic nursing space and co-authored "Guidelines: Informatics for nurses entering practice".

She also serves as secretary of the College of Child & Youth Nurses Group of the NZ Nurses Organisation and on the University of Otago Digital Health Group.

Competence and capability
Part of the nursing role in 2023 is to understand the digital health requirements of clinical practice settings and to be able to competently manage the practice environment. Collins is not only competent and capable in the delivery of the required education, but understands the technological developments being met by nurses in the clinical practice setting.

She played a pivotal role in the development of the "Guidelines: Informatics for nurses entering practice" (2018), which have been shared with each School of Nursing in New Zealand.

This has led to a consultation request from Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, to specifically ask for nursing informatics input for their national curriculum. This will help develop the competence and capability of nurses into the future.

The Nursing Council also says the HiNZ NMI executive will be a valuable resource when it comes time for the Registered and Enrolled Nurse competencies to be re-developed to include an informatics lens.

Clinical Leadership
Collins is a role model for nurses. She is a member of the Hira Clinical Reference Group and is chair of the HiNZ Nursing and Midwifery Informatics group (NMI).

Her purpose in this is to encourage nurses and midwives to engage with health informatics, acknowledge excellence in this field, strengthen the visibility of informatics, and advance nursing and midwifery practice in relation to informatics, data and digital health.

Under her leadership, the membership has grown and the executive has broadened to better reflect the workforce and the group's members. Collins collates the monthly e-newsletter and actively encourages participation in conversations on the eHealth Forum.

Collins has also reached out to the nursing networks, publishing items in the College of Nurses Aotearoa journal about her work with HiNZ, and organising presentations about HiNZ and digital health in collaboration with Nurse Executives Aotearoa.

Collins has also lobbied across the senior nursing leadership at Ministry of Health and Nursing Council, promoting health informatics as a legitimate discipline of nursing practice, both clinically and as part of nurse education.

Health is one of the most rapidly changing environments in which to work, this combined with the developing digital world makes for an often confusing environment for nurses who may view digital health and technology as a burden rather than a benefit. Collins’ leadership skills have proved important in bridging this gap.