Digital divides in nursing students: an exploration of the relationship between self-perceived digital competencies and digital barriers.

Martzoukou, Konstantina; Luders, Errol Sadullah; Work, Fiona; Kostagiolas, Petros A.; Johnson, Neil

Abstract

In the context of Higher Education nursing education, digital competencies are increasingly recognised as a necessary skillset, within a continuously evolving healthcare professional landscape. This study sought to explore nursing students’ digital competencies and to further understand the digital literacy gaps and barriers they encounter for both learning and future work. The research involved a cross sectional, discipline-based empirical study of nursing students' self-assessed digital competencies via a questionnaire survey, which collected quantitative and qualitative data from a total of five hundred and fifty-three students. The study explored the role of demographics (age, urban/rural geographical location of growing up, study year, learning disabilities (neurodiversity) and experiences of digital divides (e.g., access, contextual and behavioural barriers) play on students' digital competencies and outcomes. Students' digital competencies were found at intermediate level with younger and first year students self-assessing higher. Significant differences were identified between students who had encountered digital barriers/divides and those who had not, with the former, self-reporting lower digital competencies. Students with learning disabilities reported complex support needs for processing and organizing digital information and for productivity. Almost all the individual digital competencies items assessed had strong statistical correlations between them. The research offers key recommendations for academic libraries for the on-going, evolving exploration of students' digital competencies and for the need to follow tailored, discipline-related, holistic, practice-based and curriculum embedded approaches to students' digital skills development and support. It provides novel insights into digital competencies development for nursing students and particularly those who experience digital divides.

Citation

MARTZOUKOU, K., LUDERS, E.S., WORK, F., KOSTAGIOLAS, P.A. and JOHNSON, N. 2025. Digital divides in nursing students: an exploration of the relationship between self-perceived digital competencies and digital barriers. Journal of documentation [online], 81(2), pages 330-350. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2024-0209

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 2, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jan 6, 2025
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2025
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 8, 2024
• Journal: Journal of documentation
• Print ISSN: 0022-0418
• Electronic ISSN: 1758-7379
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 81
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 330-350
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2024-0209
• Keywords: Higher education; Nursing education; Digital competencies; Healthcare; Digital literacy; Information literacy; Nursing; Academic libraries; Digital skills
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2571831