“The empow­er­ment of First Peo­ples clin­i­cians and the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial of dig­i­tal health are piv­otal in shap­ing the future of health care in Aus­tralia, par­tic­u­lar­ly in remote and under­served com­mu­ni­ties,” says Kate.

Kate is pas­sion­ate about encour­ag­ing the uptake of dig­i­tal health tech­nol­o­gy. Health care often suf­fers from a lack of access to up-to-date resources, train­ing, and spe­cial­ist sup­port and Kate sees dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy has the pow­er to bridge these gaps.

“It’s not a fix-all,” she says. ​“But we have to embrace dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy and be shown why it is so use­ful, how it can enhance the patient’s jour­ney. At the moment, we are in this dig­i­tal no-man’s land. New dig­i­tal health solu­tions are being devel­oped, but front­line work­ers often don’t have the train­ing or time to inte­grate them effectively.”

Kate believes the dis­con­nect between devel­op­ers and front­line health­care work­ers is a major issue. Too often, new dig­i­tal tools are intro­duced with­out prop­er train­ing or con­text, lead­ing to frus­tra­tion and underutilisation. 

“Nurs­es and clin­i­cians need to be active­ly involved in dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion – not just as end users, but as co-design­ers of solu­tions that improve patient care,” she says. This requires more edu­ca­tion, hands-on train­ing, and a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach where health care and tech indus­tries work together.

Kate sees poten­tial for part­ner­ships between CRANAplus and oth­er health organ­i­sa­tions
and com­pa­nies in the health industry.

“We can share the load and have open dis­cus­sions about dig­i­tal enhance­ment, edu­ca­tion, train­ing, men­tor­ing, and sup­port of all health professionals.”

Kate’s belief in the poten­tial of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy in health reform was rein­forced when she com­plet­ed the Aus­tralasian Dig­i­tal Health Institute’s Women in Dig­i­tal Lead­er­ship program.

“I’ve seen incred­i­ble dig­i­tal solu­tions being devel­oped – rang­ing from AI-dri­ven diag­nos­tics to advanced tele­health plat­forms – but the chal­lenge is in imple­men­ta­tion. Many health­care pro­fes­sion­als strug­gle with dig­i­tal adop­tion because they have not been ade­quate­ly trained or shown how tech­nol­o­gy enhances patient care.”

But she dis­agrees that dig­i­tal lit­er­a­cy is auto­mat­i­cal­ly a gen­er­a­tional challenge. 

“I firm­ly believe that any­one can learn – if the process is made engag­ing and relevant.

“We need to ensure that dig­i­tal train­ing is prac­ti­cal, user-friend­ly, and direct­ly linked
to improv­ing patient out­comes,” she says.

“It’s true that many nurs­es work­ing in remote areas are old­er, and per­haps not of the dig­i­tal gen­er­a­tion. There are lots of gaps in dig­i­tal edu­ca­tion and I believe that’s a space where CRANAplus can be real­ly useful.

“CRANAplus and oth­er health­care organ­i­sa­tions have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to dri­ve this change by devel­op­ing cours­es that equip remote health prac­ti­tion­ers with the dig­i­tal skills they need.”

First Peo­ples-led health care

“CRANAplus has long advo­cat­ed for increas­ing First Peo­ples’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in health care,” says Kate.

“Dur­ing my time on the organisation’s Round-table, dis­cus­sions con­sis­tent­ly empha­sised the need for tar­get­ed sup­port to help First Peo­ples pur­sue nurs­ing path­ways. While progress has been made, much work remains.”

In her 40-year career, from hos­pi­tal-based train­ing in Mel­bourne to remote and trop­i­cal med­i­cine in the Tor­res Strait, Kate has seen a real shift.

More First Peo­ples from remote com­mu­ni­ties are choos­ing to enter nurs­ing, she says,
​“but we need stronger sup­port sys­tems to ensure their success.”

“I have always been a firm believ­er in the ​‘grow your own’ mod­el of health care, which invests in train­ing and devel­op­ing local health­care work­ers with­in their own communities.

“Many First Peo­ples health staff I have worked with have strug­gled with hav­ing to leave their com­mu­ni­ties to attend uni­ver­si­ty due to fac­tors such as home-sick­ness, weath­er and car­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties. This is where dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy can be very use­ful, offer­ing a blend­ed approach to learn­ing of face-to-face and online options.”

“First Peo­ples health work­ers are not just pro­fes­sion­als; they are trust­ed fig­ures who under­stand the cul­tur­al and social fab­ric of their com­mu­ni­ties. It has been incred­i­bly reward­ing to wit­ness more First Peo­ples pur­su­ing careers in nursing.

“His­tor­i­cal­ly, health­care ser­vices in remote First Peo­ples com­mu­ni­ties have been heav­i­ly reliant on vis­it­ing health pro­fes­sion­als, who often pro­vide short-term sup­port with­out long-term com­mu­ni­ty inte­gra­tion. This mod­el lacks con­ti­nu­ity and fails to fos­ter local­ly dri­ven health­care leadership.”

“Over the past 15 years, I’ve men­tored many aspir­ing health work­ers who pos­sess a nat­ur­al apti­tude for learn­ing and care­giv­ing. I recall a moment of great pride for the com­mu­ni­ty of Thurs­day Island when, for the first time, an entire ward was staffed by Tor­res Strait Islander nurs­es – a clear sign of progress in First Peo­ples health­care leadership.

“The impor­tance of cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate care is crit­i­cal, as is the role that First Peo­ples lead­er­ship plays in achiev­ing bet­ter health out­comes for these populations.

“Con­tin­ued invest­ment in schol­ar­ships, men­tor­ship pro­grams, and cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate edu­ca­tion path­ways is essen­tial to achieve this.”