A senior east London nurse who struggled with dyslexia at school has now turned author and written a chapter in a book about harnessing technology.

Dione Rogers, chief nurse informatics officer for the NHS trust which runs Queen's and King George Hospitals, wrote a chapter about digital technology in nursing practice with her newfound love of writing.

Her diagnosis she says explained a lifetime of not being able to put thoughts onto paper.

“It was a big thing in my school reports saying ‘needs to improve spelling’,” Dione recalls. “I also struggled with writing reports when I started my nursing career.”

Her diagnosis along with dyspraxia, which affects coordination, meant she could now get help, pushing herself which led her to write part of the recently-published book as one of then authors of Harnessing Digital Technology and Data for Nursing Practice.

“My mum was pretty proud,” she revealed. “It was lovely to be published and see my name in a book.

“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 used to disagree when I said I wanted to be a nurse and told me I should get into computers — we kind of both got our way in the end.”

Dione, who recently won a national digital leader of the year award, is now putting together a case study for another book about digital technology.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, admits it is one of “the least digital in London”.

Dione is part of its new roll-out of electronic patient records using AI in healthcare.

She 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.”