Get ahead in the digital space. The Australian Digital Health Agency Online Learning Portal offers a range of digital courses specific to nurses and midwives.
Digital technologies are transforming healthcare by enhancing patient care, improving operational efficiency, and enabling greater accessibility.
Changes are already happening in the way we work with the advent of the integrated electronic medical record, My Health Record, electronic prescribing, telehealth, and robotics and artificial intelligence.
The My Health Record enables near-real-time access to consumers’ health data and information across different health care settings and borders while also supporting real-time evidence-based clinical decision-making by health professionals.
Better and Faster Access to health information in My Health Record is at the heart of recent reforms to Australia’s digital health landscape. Historically, not all key health information was required to be uploaded, leaving gaps in a consumer’s record that potentially hampered care. The new ‘Sharing by Default’ legislation aims to modernise healthcare, delivering more timely and comprehensive information for providers and consumers alike.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has indicated that more changes will follow in other areas of healthcare to enable consumers greater access to their health information. It can be challenging to keep abreast of these changes and how they impact your practice: including where to access up to date evidence-based information and resources at your fingertips.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) in partnership have developed a suite of resources including webinars, podcasts and informative articles on digital health to help nurses and midwives in their practice.
The ANMF has endorsed the ADHA Nursing and Midwifery My Health Record courses. Do them in your own time, at your own pace.
Whether you are a nurse working in general practice in the community or in the ED of a busy metropolitan hospital, there are courses relevant to your area of practice or that may be of interest to you in upskilling.
The benefit of the ADHA eLearning packages:
- allow for flexible upskilling;
- provide CPD points in areas of particular interest or relevance to your practice;
- limit travel time, including negotiating time off work, to attend learning opportunities;
- keep nurses and midwives abreast of legislative changes and up to date with ADHA modules; and
- allow for completion at your own convenience.
Here’s a sample of what’s available:
Using My Health Record in Nursing – this 30-minute course provides an overview of My Health Record and describes how practice nurses can use it within their routine practice.
Digital Health Security Awareness – this course is relevant for all health professionals and has been developed to introduce online security concepts for the healthcare sector.
Electronic Prescriptions and Active Script List – the one-hour module explores what an electronic prescription is, how it is prescribed, and the policy requirements and legislation that underpin the process.
My Health Record in Emergency Departments – split into four user-friendly topics that take 5-10 minutes each to complete, this module provides an overview of My Health Record and describes how clinicians can use it within emergency departments.
Strategies for nurses and midwives
For nurses and midwives, juggling the demands of work, finding time for e-learning can feel like adding another shift to an already full roster. So here are some tips and tricks you might like to try:
- Chunk it up – do one section at a time instead of the whole module in one go.
- Bookmark the login page and keep login details handy.
- Pair with a colleague so you can encourage each other. Or in groups as part of staff in-service which fosters discussion and better recall.
- Start now, finish later – even five minutes of progress counts.
- Use reflective practice to apply learning in the moment.
- Add it to your calendar like a meeting.
- Log even short times on CPD tracker.
- Ask for short relief cover from a colleague to finish a section.
- Open it at the start of your shift so it’s ready if a quiet moment comes.
For more information
Visit the Australian Digital Health Agency Online Learning Portal for Nursing and Midwifery here
Access a range of resources ANMF Digital Health Hub here
