Nursing students’ preparedness for the digitalised clinical environment in Australia : An integrative review

Aim
The aim of this integtrative review is to examine the literature on nursing students preparedness for the digitalised clinical setting.

Background
Digital literacy skills ensure nursing students can provide quality and safe care to patients in a digitalised clinical setting.

Design
Integrative review of the literature.

Methods
The integrative review of the literature incorporated Whittemore and Knafl’s (2005) framework and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2021 statement. A review of the literature comprised of a search of the following databases: ERIC, Scopus, CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar from 2010–2022. Data were critically appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP), the Mixed Method Tool (MMAT) and Joanna Biggs Institute (JBI).

Results
The literature reported on nine studies from 2010 to 2022. The four themes identified using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis were curriculum design, education and training, digital literacy level and professional digital literacy competency standard framework. Major findings include the need for the development and integration of a professional digital literacy competency standard framework embedded into nursing curricula to equip nursing students with appropriate digital literacy skills to navigate digitalised healthcare settings.

Conclusion
Current registered nurses and preregistration nurses are required to be upskilled with the understanding and knowledge of health informatics and its role in the clinical setting. This will enable future registered nurses to keep up with the rapidly evolving technological clinical environment.

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).