Role of the digital specialist community public health nurse: reimagining community nursing in the AI-enabled public health landscape

Digital transformation and artificial intelligence are redefining how people access and navigate community healthcare. Concurrently, community nursing services are facing a sustained workforce decline. While digital nurse leadership has matured in many acute organisations, community nurses are increasingly expected to deliver technology-enabled care without equivalent leadership structures, support or career pathways. In this article, the author details a proposal for a digital specialist community public health nurse (digital SCPHN) role framework. The author describes the digital SCPHN as first and foremost a clinician, with digital capability as an essential enhancement rather than a replacement of core nursing objectives. Positioned as a digital translator and champion within community teams, the digital SCPHN helps people to navigate complex digital healthcare systems while supporting their colleagues through technology-enabled care prioritisation, secure safeguarding communication and community risk insight. The author also outlines six actionable recommendations for front-line nurses, team leads and system commissioners to strengthen community nursing impact, improve digital literacy and ensure equitable, person-centred care in digitally enabled neighbourhood healthcare systems.