Improving nurses’ digital literacy and engagement with digital workflows through a data-driven education model
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Improving nurses’ digital literacy and engagement with digital workflows through a data-driven education model

Beth Victoria Macalindin Digital clinical practice educator, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, England
Hirah Fatima Ahmed Digital clinical practice educator, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, England
Rose Marie Granaghan Digital clinical practice educator, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, England
Donna Goodfellow Deputy chief nurse information officer, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To enhance your awareness of the importance of digital literacy among nurses

  • To recognise that data from electronic patient systems can be used to improve patient care

  • To read about a data-driven education model implemented at one NHS trust to improve digital literacy

A digitally literate nursing workforce can support the delivery of safe, effective care and improve patient outcomes. However, digital literacy among nurses is variable. Electronic patient records (EPRs), which require the digital documentation of all patient encounters, can be used to generate data that will inform strategies to improve patient care and patient safety. Nurse leaders at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust acknowledged that although ward nurses were providing excellent patient care, there were gaps in their digital documentation of that care. To address the issue, the trust implemented a model of education informed by data analytics and aimed at developing nurses’ digital skills and increasing their engagement with digital workflows. This article describes how applications extracting data from the EPR system are used to identify nurses’ digital literacy training needs and how a team of digital clinical practice educators delivers targeted educational strategies to meet those needs.

Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2023.e2113

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@imperialdigeduc

Correspondence

beth.macalindin@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Macalindin BV, Ahmed HF, Granaghan RM et al (2023) Improving nurses’ digital literacy and engagement with digital workflows through a data-driven education model. Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2023.e2113

Published online: 28 November 2023

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