After 13 years in nursing, Gabriella Knott had always imagined her career would remain firmly clinical. Today, she is one of the Digital Lead Nurses at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, helping to drive digital transformation across nursing services through the Trust’s Clinical Narrative project.

It was not a career path Gabriella had planned. Having worked in emergency care for much of her career, she moved to Telford as a Senior Sister and quickly became interested in how digital tools could help improve workflows for busy clinical teams. Conversations with the Trust’s nursing informatics team eventually led her to a role she had never considered before becoming a digital nurse.

“I didn’t really think there was a role for a digital nurse because it wasn’t something I’d ever really stumbled across.”

Just nine months into the role, Gabriella has taken on a key clinical leadership role within one of the Trust’s significant nursing transformation projects. Working collaboratively with colleagues across clinical, digital and technical teams, she has helped shape and support the digitisation of nursing documentation that has traditionally been paper-based, with the project continuing to roll out across the Trust.

Bringing Nursing Documentation into the Digital Age

As Clinical Lead for the Clinical Narrative project, Gabriella has played a central role in digitising nursing assessments, admission documentation and evaluations of care used across inpatient services.

The role combines clinical expertise with project management, design, clinical safety and change management. Gabriella has worked with subject matter experts to review documentation, create wireframes, support user acceptance testing and develop the clinical safety documentation required to support deployment. She also works closely with training and business change teams to prepare services for rollout.

The experience has given her exposure to areas of healthcare technology she had never encountered before joining the digital team.

“I’ve learnt so much about building the wireframes and the clinical safety side of it. A big part of my role is making sure everything is clinically safe for use.”

As the programme has progressed from design into deployment, her focus has shifted increasingly towards supporting teams on the wards and helping staff adopt new ways of working.

Giving Clinical Teams a Voice

For Gabriella, the most rewarding part of the role is the opportunity to work directly with frontline staff. Her clinical background means she understands the pressures nursing teams face, and she sees digital transformation as an opportunity to make their working lives easier.

Much of her day-to-day is spent speaking with clinicians, gathering feedback and ensuring wards have a voice in how systems are designed and delivered. Rather than asking staff to adapt around technology, Gabriella believes digital projects should adapt to the realities of clinical practice.

“If we can improve those work pressures for staff, that’s a win.”

Her visibility on wards has also helped establish stronger connections between clinical and digital teams. Staff know who to approach with ideas, questions and concerns, creating a more collaborative approach to transformation

A Proud Moment

When Clinical Narrative went live across the pilot sites, it marked a defining moment in Gabriella’s career. After months of design work, collaboration and preparation, she finally saw the system being used by the teams it had been built to support.

“It was a real sense of achievement. I’d never done this kind of work before, so getting Clinical Narrative live and making a difference to the way nursing teams work on inpatient wards was immense.”

Seeing the pilot wards successfully adopt the new processes provided confidence for the wider rollout across the Trust. Just as importantly, it demonstrated how much could be achieved through collaboration between clinical teams, digital specialists, trainers and business change colleagues.

Reflecting on the project, Gabriella is particularly proud of the improvements that were made along the way. Rather than simply digitising existing forms, the team took the opportunity to review documentation, challenge existing processes and work with subject matter experts to create something better.

“This project feels like my baby. It’s the biggest achievement in my whole career, by far.”

Transformation Built Around People

The rollout of Clinical Narrative has taken place alongside a series of other important digital changes across the Trust, including upgrades to Vitals and CareFlow and the introduction of Connect for digital handover and task management.

Despite the scale of change, Gabriella believes staff have embraced the transformation and remained committed throughout the programme. She is particularly conscious of the pressures ward teams continue to face and the importance of delivering support in a way that works for them.

One of the key lessons from the project has been the importance of taking training and support directly to clinical teams rather than expecting them to find time away from busy wards. That approach has helped strengthen engagement and build confidence ahead of each deployment phase.

“We need to go to them. We shouldn’t be expecting them to come to us.”

Gabriella is also keen to recognise the wider teams that have contributed to the programme’s success, from training and business change colleagues to digital specialists and ward staff across the Trust.

“Just go for it”

Although she never expected to move into digital nursing, Gabriella now actively encourages others to consider it.

She believes clinicians bring valuable experience into digital roles because they understand the realities of patient care and can help ensure technology genuinely supports frontline teams. Over the past nine months, she has completed clinical safety training, developed new project management skills and gained experience leading a major transformation programme.

“You can have a positive impact on the patient journey and the staff working day without being at the patient’s bedside.”

For clinicians considering a similar move, her advice is simple.

“If you want to go for it, just go for it.”

Looking Ahead

The role has changed Gabriella’s view of what her future career could look like. While she once imagined progressing through traditional nursing leadership roles, she now hopes to continue developing within digital healthcare and one day become a Chief Nursing Information Officer.

What remains unchanged is her commitment to people. Whether speaking with ward staff, supporting transformation projects or helping shape future services, Gabriella remains passionate about ensuring clinicians feel heard throughout the digital journey.

“The most important thing is that I haven’t changed who I am.”

By combining clinical experience with a passion for innovation, Gabriella is helping ensure digital transformation remains rooted in the needs of the people using it every day.

Next Steps

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You can also read more about the project and connect with Gabriella on LinkedIn.