Today marks International Nurses Day 2022, held every year on 12 May to commemorate the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and to recognise the achievements of the nursing profession.

The last two years have seen the NHS put under an enormous amount of pressure with the pandemic, and the on-going backlogs, bed shortages, and staffing challenges. We are continually grateful for the efforts of our nurses and healthcare professionals on the frontline.

This year, the theme for #IND2022, set by the International Council of Nurses is: ‘Nurses: A Voice to Lead - Invest in Nursing and respect rights to secure global health.’ This focuses on the need to protect, support, and invest in the nursing profession to strengthen health systems around the world.

We are proud to have some incredible nurses on the System C team – through the Trusts and other healthcare settings that we work with, but also within our own staff.

Here we celebrate five of our nurses. Please join us as we send an enormous thank you to these, and the many, many others we work with – your dedication, efforts and hard-won skills and knowledge are quite simply outstanding.

Claire Grant – System C Clinical Adoption Specialist

Claire is a registered General Nurse and has worked in the NHS and various hospitals across the world for the last 32 years. She was a CNIO at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust before joining System C in 2020 as a Clinical Adoption Specialist (CAS), helping Trusts use our solutions in the most efficient and safe way.

Her proudest clinical digital achievement is developing care plans as first of type with over 150 nurses involved in its creation. She also led the remote go live of CareFlow EPR and Nurse Care Planning during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. The Care Planning project was short listed for both the Nursing Times and Health Service Journal (HSJ) awards and was in the top three with the Nursing times under the ‘Innovation in Digital Nursing’ award category.

Nursing has always been important to me because I dreamed of being a nurse since I was a child, and from qualifying, I have been proud to hold the vocation that will be part of me until I retire and beyond. Patients have always been my first priority and being a CAS for System C is the epitome of that as I can now influence care for them across the UK and around the world.

Natalie Hayes – CNIO of St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

During the first wave of Covid-19, Natalie started to use more digital systems to manage her patients, such as blood glucose and insulin pump downloads, two-way messaging, video clinics and so on. This is when she started to really see the benefits of digital transformation in healthcare and actively began progressing her digital nursing journey. Shortly afterwards, the CNIO post was advertised, and Natalie was successful in her application.

Natalie Trained in 2006 in her local Trust and worked initially on the Acute Medical unit before moving to intensive care at the Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital. Natalie then moved back to St Helens doing research. She studied for her master’s in nursing, whilst rising through the ranks as a diabetic specialist nurse and being a new mum! Natalie is an active member of the CDLN and is key to many other digital leader’s networks around the country.

Jacqueline Davis – System C Clinical Adoption Specialist

Jacqueline Davis is a nurse with over 30 years’ experience, mainly in adult acute care. She is an alumnus of the NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Leading Care III Programme for NHS directors and aspiring directors. Jacqueline also has a Masters degree in Research and Evidence based Nursing, a BA(Hons) degree in Nursing, is an Independent Prescriber and has completed multiple other professional courses including accreditation as a Clinical Safety Officer. She has a keen interest in leadership, nursing, patient safety, and technology in healthcare.

Jacqueline established System C’s Clinical Digital Leads Network (CDLN) which provides collaboration opportunity to lead nurses, AHPs, midwives and pharmacists across the System C customer base in digitising and transforming the care process. The Network offers a safe forum for individuals to seek advice, guidance and mentorship whilst providing a source of expertise, sharing good practice, and celebrating success together.

There have been many memorable moments throughout my long career in nursing, but the most valuable gift has been the wide variety of roles I’ve had, the travelling I've been able to do, and the people I’ve met and worked with along the way. It has built my experience and made me who I am today. They are the most valuable assets I’ve had in my career in nursing.

Anna Rubio – Transformation Lead, Frimley ICS Digital

Anna Rubio began her career at King’s College Hospital London as a Junior Physiotherapist, and quickly made her way up through the ranks becoming a Senior Physiotherapist at St. George’s Hospital, then later an Advanced Practice Physiotherapist at Guy’s and St. Thomas’. A few years later while at Frimley Health Foundation Trust, Anna was contentedly pursuing her clinical career but kept coming up against problems for which she had ideas of digital solutions but didn’t have the time or influence to implement. Before long, Anna’s frustration was met with opportunity as Frimley Health advertised for its first ever AHP Information Officer role.

Anna leapt at the opportunity and is now thoroughly enjoying having the ability to influence these changes that are making a real difference to frontline clinicians and patients. Anna’s proudest achievement, whilst being in this digital role, is being able to empower the AHP workforce and give them a voice at the table. She strives for equality of access and influence within Digital Transformation and is only just scratching the surface of her ideas – she’s not done yet!

Ruth Palmer – System C Sales Executive

Ruth qualified as a registered general nurse and registered midwife specialising in perinatal and neonatal care within the NHS. She worked with a Johnson and Johnson company for 15 years supporting nurses and clinicians in the operating theatres across the UK. Ruth was instrumental in establishing suture training workshops for midwives, nurses and doctors and later coordinated and facilitated the Basic Surgical Skills Course (BSSC) for surgeons, mandated by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and England across the UK.

With System C, Ruth is still able to apply her passion for healthcare excellence working as a sales executive and account manager - enabling the company to continue with implementing its clinical products for improved patient care. For her, seeing a challenge that leads to the adoption of a digital solution, delivering real value to end users whilst positively impacting patient care is enormously rewarding.

I recall with great pride, my first day as a qualified Midwife looking after women and their babies. Whilst I no longer wear a uniform, the desire to care and improve the lives and clinical experience of patients wherever they are, is still of paramount importance to me forty years on.