Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Dec 22, 2023
Date Accepted: Feb 29, 2024
Digital Competence of Health Professionals: A Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital competence is listed as one of the key competences for lifelong learning and is increasing in importance not only in private but also in professional life. There is consensus within the healthcare sector that digital competence (or digital literacy) is needed in various professional fields. However, it is still unclear what exactly digital competence of health professionals should include and how it can be measured.
Objective:
For this reason, the following scoping review aims to provide an overview of the common definitions of digital literacy in the scientific literature in the field of healthcare and the existing measurement instruments.
Methods:
Included are peer-reviewed scientific papers from the last ten years (2013-2023) in English or German that deal with the digital competence of healthcare workers in both outpatient and inpatient care. The literature search provided results from the databases Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, EBSCOhost (which provides results from MEDLINE, OpenAIRE, ERIC, OAIster) and Cochrane Library. The review follows the JBI methodology for scoping reviews based on the work of Arksey and O'Malley and Levac et al. and the description of the results is based on the PRISMA-ScR checklist in the sub-version for scoping reviews.
Results:
The initial search identified 1,682 paper. In total 46 paper were included in the synthesis. The review results show, that there is a strong focus on technical skills and knowledge in both the definitions and the measurement tools. A wide range of competences were identified within the analyzed works and integrated into the competence model of Hecklau et al. in the areas of technical, methodological, social, and personal competences. The measurement instruments mainly used self-assessment of skills and knowledge as an indicator of competence and differed greatly in their statistical quality.
Conclusions:
The identified multitude of sub-competences illustrates the complexity of digital competence in healthcare, and existing measuring instruments are not yet able to reflect this complexity.
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