Sharon Downman

I have been a Registered Nurse and Midwife for over 30 years, and have post graduate studies in Health Management and a Masters of Health Informatics. I was inaugural Certified Health Information of Australasia. I have been a member of HISA and a Committee Member of Nursing Informatics Australia for many years. I am also a member of the Australian College of Nursing and an active member of the Informatics Community of Interest. Actively involved in the development of the Position Statement – Nursing Informatics and speaking on the ways to put the Position Statement into action.

In my previous roles as a business analyst in the preliminary work on Uniting Care Health’s investment in the First Fully Integrated Digital Hospital, St Stephen’s Hospital, Hervey Bay and then later to take on roles at Clinical Applications Manager and then Clinical Informatics and Quality Manager at St Stephen’s Hospital, I was increasingly excited for the opportunities to use technology to provide more nursing time at the bedside to provide care with the best information and tools.

I then had the opportunity to join the Qld Health program as a clinical educator for the 3rd Release of the iEMR, including the first paediatric, maternity and community releases in a Cairns. In 2016, I joined the iEMR state program as the Clinical Nurse Consultant for the maternity extensions including medications, power plans for maternity and paediatric releases through extensive statewide clinical engagement, design, clinical governance, test script writing and testing.

Currently also tutor for James Cook University for the Master of Leadership and Management (Nursing) in Informatics for Health Professionals.

I advocate for the MyHealth record and the ability for patients to the right information available at the right time to assist in the best provision of care. In my current role I work with a variety of technologies within the health care environment, and advocating for patient safety.

I promote the use of technology to support evidence based, safe and efficient patient care. I also advocate to patients to use technology to be empowered and engaged in their care. I am passionate about the ability for informatics to transform the delivery of health care.