Lisa Knowles: Clinical Informatics Award 2024 finalist

eHealthNews.nz: Clinical Informatics

Lisa Knowles: Clinical Informatics Award 2024 finalist

Sunday, 27 October 2024

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PROFILE - Lisa Knowles, nurse manager, District Nursing Nelson Marlborough

Judges comment
“We were impressed with the initiative shown by Lisa in her learning and initiative to help deliver a complete solution comprising many technical parts. She brought a high level of clinical experience of district nursing pathways to a project that has had wide-spread impact and benefit across urban and rural communities. She contributed across the project including engagement of varied stakeholders and her knowledge ensured the use of data and reporting to support patient care.”

Nominator’s quote
“Lisa’s knowledge and understanding of team needs, including the various individual personalities of team members, saw her develop an approach to implementation that would support everyone from the least knowledgeable IT user to the early adopter. The way in which Lisa has led this project has been the cornerstone to successful development and implementation.”

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Profile
Lisa Knowles is an accomplished district nurse, who now holds the nurse manager role across Nelson Marlborough District Nursing services. She is committed to high-quality patient care and adherence to best practices in the field. Her clinical expertise, accumulated over years of service, played a pivotal role in her collaboration to develop a patient management system (PMS) specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of district nursing.

A new approach
Prior to implementing this new PMS, Nelson Marlborough District Nursing was working across 3 different systems, including a 20-year-old Access database. It was increasingly clear a new approach was needed to improve efficiency and visibility of workloads.

Lisa worked with a project manager in collaboration with an indici development team to build and implement a new District Nursing PMS from inception to implementation. This included development of content, testing, data migration and educating a team of over 100 nurses to use the system.

The District Nurse PMS has now been implemented in several other locations in Te Waipounamu South Island and more organisations and providers are interested in implementation.

Clinical pathways
Lisa is an expert district nurse who is committed to high quality patient care and best practice in district nursing.

Her knowledge spans across various care pathways, and has been instrumental in shaping a PMS that aligns with the practical realities of district nursing. Her expertise in areas such as specialist wound care, oxygen therapy, intravenous antibiotics, palliative care, and long-term condition management ensured that each clinical pathway integrated into the system would be both relevant and effective.

Lisa recognised the critical importance of using data to support patient care and ensured that district nursing-specific reporting features were incorporated. This allows for streamlined documentation, improved data accuracy, and the ability to analyse outcomes, which ultimately contributes to enhanced patient care and supports ongoing service improvement.

Building and configuring the ACC functionality was also an essential and important aspect of the PMS to align with ACC DN contracts, giving clear visibility for claiming.

Relationships and expertise
Recognising that technology adoption can be challenging, Lisa developed a comprehensive approach that took into account the diverse levels of IT proficiency among her colleagues. From those with limited tech skills to early adopters, she ensured that everyone had the support they needed to embrace the new system confidently. Her ability to foster an inclusive environment has facilitated a smooth transition and encouraged team members to leverage the system to its full potential.

The successful development and implementation of the new PMS was largely due to Lisa's commitment to learning, to her team and to district nursing as a whole, clearly demonstrating the importance of having clinical ownership and partnership in the development of new, clinically-based IT products.