Digital Matron
Job summary
The Digital Matron is a clinical leadership role responsible for supporting digital transformation at the Christie by promoting safe, effective and clinically led digital ways of working. As part of the Digital Clinical team, the post holder will work closely with the CCIOs and Digital Clinical Safety and Governance Officer to support delivery of the Future Christie programme and the Christie 2028 Strategy.The post holder will provide operational nursing and AHP leadership to support the safe design, implementation and adoption of digital solutions, including the replacement of the Trust's Electronic Patient Record (EPR). Through visible clinical leadership, the role ensures robust clinical governance, promotes digital clinical safety as a Clinical Safety Officer, and champions the nursing and AHP voice within digital programmes.The Digital Matron will support the development of digital capability across the workforce, encourage clinical engagement and adoption, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement, learning and innovation. The role includes line management of the Digital Clinical team and collaborative working with stakeholders across the Trust to improve quality, safety and patient outcomes through digital transformation.
Main duties of the job
We are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking Digital Matron to provide clinical leadership across digitally enabled services. This pivotal role ensures the safe, effective and consistent use of digital systems within clinical practice, supporting high-quality patient care and continuous improvement.
The Digital Matron will act as a visible clinical leader, bridging clinical services and Digital teams to ensure technology aligns with clinical workflows, models of care and patient safety standards. As a Clinical Safety Officer, the post holder will ensure compliance with digital clinical safety, governance and assurance, ensuring risks associated with digital change are identified, assessed and mitigated appropriately.
The role includes operational leadership of the Digital Clinical Team, supporting workforce development, digital readiness and adoption across nursing, AHP and multidisciplinary teams. The Digital Matron will contribute clinical expertise to system design, optimisation and implementation, while representing digital clinical practice at Trust committees and regional or national networks.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced nurse or AHP with strong clinical credibility, digital insight and leadership capability to support the future of digitally enabled care within the organisation.
About us
The Christie is one of Europe's leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country. We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years. We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.
Job description
Job responsibilities
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Digital Matron provides clinical leadership to support the safe, effective and consistent use of digital systems within clinical services. The post holder works across the clinical areas to ensure that digital transformation supports clinical workflows, patient safety, and quality of care.Clinical Leadership and Digital Practice Provide operational nursing and AHP leadership in relation to the use of digital systems within clinical services. Support the integration of digital systems into clinical workflows, ensuring alignment with agreed models of care, established frameworks and standard operating procedures. Act as a visible clinical leader for digitally enabled practice, supporting staff to use digital systems as part of routine care delivery.Digital Clinical Safety, Governance and Quality Apply clinical governance principles to digital workflow changes, ensuring risks are identified, assessed ,mitigated and escalated to senior leaders Acting alongside other Clinical Safety Officers, supporting compliance with relevant digital clinical safety legislation and assurance processes. Contribute to hazard identification, risk assessment and safety case development for digital systems. Undertake and support audit activity related to the use of digital systems in clinical practice. Operational and Team Leadership Provide line management and operational leadership to the Digital Clinical Team, including workload management, appraisal and development. Management of performance conduct and capability in line with Trust policy. Support prioritisation and coordination of clinical digital work in line with organisational objectives and resource availability. Ensure all Nurses and AHPs within the team meet registration renewal and revalidation requirements and work within their scope of practice. Ensure there are effective systems and processes in place for the management of absence and annual leave.Engagement, Adoption and Workforce Development Work with nursing, AHP and multidisciplinary teams to support clinical engagement in the planning, implementation and evaluation of digital systems. Support approaches to improve digital readiness, capability and adoption across the workforce. Contribute to the development and delivery of digital training and education in collaboration with digital, workforce and education teams.Digital Systems and Informatics Participate in the testing, configuration and optimisation of clinical digital systems, using clinical knowledge, established frameworks and judgement. Collate and review feedback from users and services to inform system improvement and optimisation. Representation and Communication Represent Digital Services and clinical digital practice at Trust committees and working groups as required. Participate in local, regional and national clinical digital networks, sharing learning and best practice as required.Additional Responsibilities Participate in occasional out-of-hours or weekend working during critical phases of digital implementation.Values and Behaviours Demonstrate the Trusts agreed values and behaviours in all aspects of work, maintaining accountability for own attitude, conduct and professional practice. Act in a manner that reflects the Trusts values through observable behaviours, including how work is undertaken, how communication is delivered, and how colleagues, patients and stakeholders are treated. Promote a culture of respect, inclusion and professionalism, setting appropriate standards of behaviour and challenging conduct that is inconsistent with Trust values. Ensure interactions with patients, colleagues and partners are respectful, open and constructive, supporting a positive working environment. Take personal responsibility for maintaining professional standards, responding appropriately to feedback and reflecting on practice to support continuous improvement.Financial and Physical Resources Support the review of the purchasing of appropriate digital equipment to be supplied to clinical areas and supporting safe use of these in practice.
Person Specification
Qualifications
- Current professional registration with NMC or HCPC registration
- Degree level qualification in healthcare related subject
- Teaching qualification or equivalent experience.
- Accredited Clinical Safety Officer
- Qualification in or equivalent advanced specialist knowledge in digital systems
- Management and/or leadership qualification
Experience
- Experience of successfully managing the implementation of change
- Evidence of professional leadership, leading to innovation in practice
- Experience of leadership, including leading and managing a team and being accountable for service delivery
- Experience of mentorship, teaching, or training. Development and delivery of training/education
- Experience independently managing and prioritising a varied workload under pressure and to deadlines, while recognising when issues need escalating.
- Experience of contributing to the development of policy and protocols to support best practice
- Evidence of working collaboratively
- Experience of an EPR implementation
- Oncology experience
Skills
- Able to interpret complex data and present complex information in an informative manner to a wide range of individuals.
- Strong analytical skills and ability to consider the broader picture.
- Ability to communicate and deal sensitively with emotive and contentious issues.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills.
- Demonstratable IT skills in being able to find, manage, store and share digital information, data and content
- Ability to work independently with effective time management skills.
- Work in partnership with clinical teams to deliver on nursing and AHP agendas.
- Ability to establish credibility with a wide range of staff.
- Understanding of information governance, data quality, and safe data handling
- Experience designing or delivering digital training
- Ability to support digital upskilling across the workforce
- Understanding of digital literacy frameworks
- Understanding of usability principles and human-centred design
Knowledge
- Knowledge of digital clinical safety principles and standards, including risk management and assurance processes for clinical digital systems.
- Knowledge of information governance requirements relevant to digital systems, including data protection, confidentiality and appropriate information sharing.
- Knowledge of quality improvement, audit and evaluation approaches relevant to clinical practice and digital systems.
- Knowledge of equality, diversity and inclusion principles and their application to clinical practice and workforce leadership.
- Knowledge of workforce development approaches related to digital capability, education and training.
Values
- Ability to demonstrate the organisational values and behaviours.
Other
- Able to fulfil Occupational Health requirements for the post.
- Able to work across Christie sites as required and attend external events.
- It is expected that the post holder will do clinical shifts per month to work with the nursing and AHP workforce.
- Able to work flexibly including unsociable hours as service requires, especially at key stages in the implementation of clinical digital systems.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name
The Christie NHS FT
Address
Service Improvement - E00830
Manchester
M20 4BX
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.christie.nhs.uk/