Digital Nursing shortlisted for national awards for improving patient care with real-time data
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board was delighted when its Digital Nursing team was shortlisted for two Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards earlier this month. The recognition highlights the team’s work integrating real-time data into the day-to-day decision-making of nurses, leading to better ward staffing and improved patient care.
The work of the Digital Nursing team began with a shared understanding that access to timely, reliable staffing data was limited. Information was often fragmented, paper-based and difficult for frontline teams to use in day-to-day decision making.
Nurse Informatics Lead Aron White said: “We struggled to answer questions about our nursing workforce such as how we could drive down our reliance on agency staffing and how we could deploy the right nurses to meet the patient care needs on the ward.”
In 2023 two new systems – Tendable and Safecare - were rolled out across the Health Board, significantly improving the quality of nursing data being recorded. However, there was still an opportunity to make this information more accessible and usable in daily clinical practice.
Analytics Lead for Nursing Ceri Dallimore said: “The disconnect between data entry and data use became our key driver for change.”
To bridge this gap, the team co-designed a suite of interactive dashboards using Microsoft Power BI. Working closely with nursing teams in workshops, they introduced the tools and continuously refined them based on feedback to ensure they met real world nursing needs.
The Digital Nursing team brings together a vital blend of clinical and analytical expertise, with nurses Emma Davies, Aron White and Helen Bonello working alongside embedded analyst Ceri Dallimore. This combined experience meant they could rapidly develop tools that were practical, relevant and shaped by real nursing experience.
Frontline teams played a key role in shaping the dashboards, helping to ensure they reflected everyday nursing language and were practical and intuitive to use.
The impact has been clear in practice. Ceri said: “On one Medicine Frailty ward, patient falls reduced by 50% following a staff uplift informed by the dashboard insights.”
Nurse Staffing Lead Emma Davies added: “There’s been a significant culture shift. Ward managers are engaged in their data. They understand the impact that managing annual leave and rosters has on patient care.”
Ceri explained “This was never just an IT project. It's about using our resources effectively, so nurses have the right tools and support in place to deliver safe, high-quality care.”
Following its success, the programme is now being considered for replication and adoption across Wales.