Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO)

The Hospital:

The Royal Children’s Hospital’s (RCH) Vision is “A world where all kids thrive”.

RCH is a cornerstone member of the Melbourne Children’s Campus, partnering with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics and The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.

RCH has cared for the children and young people of Victoria for more than 150 years since it was founded in 1870. A full range of paediatrics and adolescent health services are provided plus tertiary and quaternary care for the most critically ill and medically complex patients in Victoria, Tasmania, southern NSW and other states around Australia and overseas. The Hospital has more than 6,000 staff, a budget of $850M, 12 wards and 350 beds. Annually, the RCH has 300,000+ Specialist Clinic appointments, 90,000+ Emergency Department presentations and 20,000 elective surgeries.

The RCH is committed to the Child Safe Standards. 

RCH enjoys high employee engagement and is committed to staff safety and a positive culture through enactment of our Compact.

For further Information on RCH is available here.

Chief Nursing Information Officer (CBIO)

• Work for Australia's leading paediatric hospital
• Ongoing, Full-Time position
• Strategic nursing leadership role at the forefront of shaping nursing informatics and digital nursing practice at a digitally forward and innovative organisation
• Excellent employee benefits including salary packaging
• Flexible work options available, including ability to combine with clinical roles and duties

About the Role:

This is an ongoing full-time position within the Digital Innovation and EMR Team. The role is able to commence immediately. 

The CNIO is the executive nursing leader responsible for nursing informatics and digital nursing practice across RCH. Working in partnership with the Executive Chief Nursing Officer the CNIO ensures digital strategy, EMR optimisation, data, analytics and AI align with nursing professional standards, workforce priorities and contemporary models of care.

The CNIO is a member of the Nursing Professional Council and contributes to organisation-wide nursing strategy, governance, workforce capability and professional standards. The CNIO acts as the principal advisor to the Executive Chief Nursing Officer on digital nursing strategy, informatics, and emerging technologies.

The role provides the professional nursing leadership for informatics across the organisation, ensuring digital transformation advances nursing practice, professional standards, workforce capability and patient outcomes. The CNIO ensures the EMR and associated digital technologies support current and future nursing workflows, reduce documentation burden, and contribute to measurable improvements in the safety, quality, efficiency and experience of patient and family-centred care. The role champions the engagement of the nursing workforce in the use of data, technology and eHealth to deliver interoperable, patient-centric, user-friendly and evidence-based care.

The CNIO leads the nursing informatics team, sets the nursing digital health and informatics strategy, owns the nursing EMR governance and optimisation agenda, and builds a sustainable pipeline of nursing informatics capability through the Nursing Informatician role and the rotational Nursing Informatics Fellow program. The CNIO also provides nursing leadership for areas such as the responsible adoption of AI, predictive analytics and other emerging technologies as they affect nursing practice and patient care.

Classification for this position will be according to the Nursing & Midwives (Victorian Public Health Sector) Enterprise Agreement 2024-2028 (Division Clinical Director 8A).

What you'll achieve:

Strategy & Leadership

• Provide, develop and lead the nursing digital health and informatics strategy across RCH, ensuring alignment of nursing and hospital strategy with clinical systems, data, analytics, AI and broader technological advancement
• Lead planning, development and implementation of strategic and tactical clinical information systems and associated technologies to support current and future nursing workflows and models of care
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders including RCH and Parkville Executive, fellow CxIOs (CCIO, CMIO, CAHIO, CPIO and precinct CNIOs), the Executive Director Nursing Services, MCRI, The University of Melbourne and external digital health bodies
• Represent nursing on Parkville EMR, campus and state-wide digital health governance committees, and act as the senior nursing advocate for paediatric-specific and nursing-specific requirements in digital system design
• Undertake horizon scanning for best practice in nursing informatics, digital health, data and AI, and translate emerging evidence into local strategy
• Ensure compliance with RCH policies and financial responsibility according to delegations and budget parameters
• Advise the Executive Chief Nursing Officer on digital strategy impacting nursing practice.
• Ensure nursing informatics initiatives align with the Nursing Strategic Plan.
• Ensure nursing data supports nursing-sensitive quality indicators, professional practice evaluation and strategic nursing decision-making.

Team Leadership and Workforce Development

• Lead the development of digital capability across the nursing workforce to support the use of digital technologies, analytics and AI to improve care delivery and career pathways.
• Contribute to professional nursing governance, career pathways and standards
• Lead the nursing informatics team, setting clear goals, managing resources and supporting the professional development of team members
• Provide professional leadership, mentorship and supervision to the Nursing Informatician, and oversight of the rotational Nursing Informatics Fellow program, building a pipeline of nursing informatics capability
• Sponsor and continuously improve the Nursing Informatics Fellowship as a development pathway that pairs informatics placements with clinical practice
• Contribute to a strong people culture, supported by strategy, informed by People Matters, that focuses on a culture of inclusivity and respect
• Champion an innovation and learning culture through coaching, mentoring and guiding nursing staff across the organisation

EMR and Clinical Systems

• Lead the nursing EMR strategy, including governance, prioritisation, optimisation and benefits realisation for nursing workflows
• Ensure the EMR and associated technologies support safe, efficient, high-quality and patient and family-centred nursing care, with attention to paediatric medication safety, growth, developmental and safeguarding considerations
• Identify opportunities to optimise nursing workflows, documentation, flowsheets, care plans and clinical decision support, with a deliberate focus on reducing nursing documentation burden
• Provide senior nursing oversight of point-of-care technologies, including device integration, barcode medication administration, patient monitoring and mobility solutions
• Support incident review and system improvement where digital systems contribute to clinical risk, and participate in digital clinical governance and safety structures
• Oversee assessment of EMR upgrades, changes of workflows and functionality as they affect nursing, in partnership with the Parkville EMR program

Data, Analytics and AI

• Provide senior nursing leadership for the hospital’s data and analytics agenda, championing the use of EMR and enterprise data to drive nursing-sensitive quality indicators, workforce insights, operational performance, benefits realisation and research
• Work with nursing leadership (NUMs / ANUMs and directors) to embed the use of reports, dashboards and Epic nurse utilisation data (e.g. PEP / NEAT) in operational decision-making
• Provide nursing governance leadership for the safe, ethical and effective adoption of AI, machine learning and predictive analytics affecting nursing practice, including evaluation, validation and monitoring of AI-enabled tools
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams – including data scientists, software engineers, analysts and researchers – to create and test high-impact, innovative digital and analytical approaches to care delivery
• Lead and encourage nursing research in the use of digital technology, data and AI, in partnership with MCRI, The University of Melbourne and campus research infrastructure

Innovation and Models of Care

• Contribute nursing leadership to digitally enabled models of care including virtual care and telehealth, remote patient monitoring, hospital-in-the-home and digital care pathways
• Support the review, assessment and proof-of-concept evaluation of new innovations from third-party suppliers of clinical devices, systems and applications, using evidence and clearly identified success criteria to inform business cases for wider rollout
• Drive the use of My RCH Portal and other consumer-facing digital tools to enable patient and family-centred, connected care

Capability, Education and Engagement

• Provide executive sponsorship of the nursing EMR education curriculum and optimisation programs delivered by the nursing informatics team, ensuring alignment with the EMR Optimisation Plan
• Identify and respond to learning, development and training needs of nursing staff related to the EMR, reporting, analytics, AI literacy and clinical informatics
• Act as a translator between technical and clinical workforces, articulating the value of informatics, data and AI to all levels of the organisation and ensuring the nursing voice is engaged in digital projects
• Foster collaborative relationships with nursing staff across RCH, the Parkville precinct, MCRI, The University of Melbourne (including the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health) and external education providers
• Consult with RCH Executive, nursing staff and the Parkville EMR team on digital workflows, technologies, data and AI

If this sounds like you, please click here for the position description.

Your skills and experience:

• Registered Nurse with current AHPRA registration
• Senior nursing credibility with demonstrated ability to provide professional nursing leadership across a large health service while operating effectively within a matrix reporting environment.
• Experience advising executive nursing leaders and influencing organisation-wide nursing strategy including leading change
• Expert understanding of EMR functionality to support nursing workflows, with experience in EMR implementation and/or optimisation
• Experience with health data, analytics platforms and data-driven quality improvement
• Understanding of clinical governance, patient safety and quality improvement

Highly regarded:

• Certification in health informatics (e.g. CHIA, FAIDH)
• Masters level or higher postgraduate qualifications in nursing, health informatics, digital health, public health, data science or related fields
• Experience in the evaluation, governance or deployment of AI and predictive analytics in healthcare
• Experience in external digital health stakeholder engagement, including national or state digital health programs

About the Digital Innovation & EMR Team.

The DI & EMR team sits in the Digital Portfolio within the Digital and Allied Health Division. The Digital and Allied Health Division leads the hospital's digital transformation agenda, and is responsible for the implementation, optimisation and governance of digital health technologies, including the Electronic Medical Record, the RCH Patient Portal, artificial intelligence clinical solutions and virtual care platforms.

RCH has made significant investments in digital health capability, including the implementation and ongoing optimisation of the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) shared across the Parkville precinct, expansion of virtual and digitally enabled models of care, maturation of enterprise data and analytics platforms, and the emerging adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical and operational settings.

What we offer:

• Salary packaging option with our partner, SmartSalary – Increase your take home pay by up to $11,500 per annum!
• Looking for a new set of wheels to get you to the office? We offer Novated Leases through our partnership with SmartSalary
• Workplace culture of continuous improvement, support and training
• Discounted Private Health Insurance
• Support for working parents including two on-site Early Learning Centres, flexible working arrangements, breast feeding and pumping facilities 
• Help when you need it most! Staff counselling, financial coaching, legal support, nutritional support and specialist helpline services, and more through our EAP partner, Converge
• Unlimited access to select fitness facilities in your local area via Fitness Passport
• Retail discounts & more!

Other requirements:

• Current National Criminal Record Check, or willing to obtain
• Valid Working with Children Check
• Compliance with RCH's 'Staff Immunisation – Prevention of Vaccine Preventable Diseases' procedure

Application process:

To apply, you will need a resume and a tailored cover letter outlining your skills, experience, and suitability for the position in line with the requirements of the position description. 

Shortlisting for this position will commence immediately. We encourage you to apply promptly as the advertisement may close early should a suitable applicant be sourced.

For more information about this position please contact:
Daryl Cheng, Chief Clinical Informatics Officer; email: daryl.cheng@rch.org.au

Why work at the RCH?

RCH enjoys high employee engagement and is committed to staff safety and a positive culture through enactment of our Compact. We offer the opportunity to work in world-class facilities, surrounded by Royal Park and only a short tram trip from the heart of Melbourne city.

We also offer staff benefits such as discounted staff parking, salary packaging, and an award-winning health and wellbeing program.

The RCH is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally and/or linguistically diverse background, all members of the LGBTQI community and people with disability.

It is a requirement of your employment that you be vaccinated against Influenza annually for Category A and B roles, in compliance with any public health orders in place at the relevant time, unless you have a medical exception in line with those public health orders, which has been accepted by The Royal Children’s Hospital.  Applicants will be required to provide their Australian Government Immunisation History Statement, it is a requirement of the RCH to collect, record and hold vaccination information.

It is also a requirement of your employment that you comply with any direction given by The Royal Children’s Hospital that you be vaccinated against, or prove immunity to, any other disease, unless you have a relevant exemption, and offers of employment are conditional on successful completion of background checks including reference checks. 

Are you ready to join our team?

Apply online by clicking on the “Apply” button

Applications close 25 August 2026