When Dione Rogers (above), our Deputy Chief Nurse and Chief Nurse Informatics Officer, was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult, confirming her own hunch, it explained a lifetime of not being able to easily translate the thoughts in her head to paper.

She said:

It was a big thing in my school reports, ‘needs to improve spelling’, and I tried so hard. As I started my career I excelled vocally, but really struggled with report writing.

In my profession, I can be measured by that, so it was really liberating to find out there was a reason for it. It’s not about intelligence, it’s about different ways of thinking.

She was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia, which affects movement and coordination, after it was picked up on by her mentor, Natasha Phillips, who was the first national Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO).

Since then, Dione has become a published author, contributing a chapter to the recently released book: Harnessing Digital Technology and Data for Nursing Practice.

She added:

It was a lovely achievement to be published and see my name in a book. My mum was pretty proud.

I came from a place where I lacked confidence, to getting a transformational diagnosis which allowed me to ask for help and push myself. My dad, who died 20 years ago, and I used to disagree when I said I wanted to be a nurse, he said it would be long hours and I should get into computers. We kind of both got our way in the end.

A number of nurses championing the use of digital technology in the profession contributed to the book, which was collated by Natasha during her time as CNIO, working on behalf of the Florence Nightingale Foundation.

Dione’s chapter was based on nursing leadership and the development of digital nursing specialist roles. She’s continuing her writing too, currently penning a case study for a book about digital transformation. Dione has also spoken nationally about neurodiversity, represented nurses in an international digital health conference, and won digital leader of the year in the national Women in Tech Excellence awards.

Her interest in digital nursing began when she got her first CNIO role at Kettering Hospital in 2019. She then secured a place on a development programme run by the Florence Nightingale Programme, aimed at building a united front on more leadership for digital nursing.

Dione said:

Chief clinical information officers emerged over a decade ago and were mostly doctors. It worked really well in taking the right tech forward.

Nurses are the biggest workforce, so we needed to involve them too. These roles help to bridge the gap between tech development teams and clinicians, with clinicians involved in the design of the digital systems they’ll be using.

As our Trust is one of the least digital hospitals in London, she is really excited to be part of the roll-out of our electronic patient record next year, and believes AI in healthcare will be the next big thing.

Dione added:

I’ve gone from being scared of writing to wanting to write a book. It’s been a phenomenal few years.