Digital skills of caregivers working in elderly and community care: a descriptive study

Background: In order to provide qualitative care to residents, communication between caregivers and, coordination and continuity of care is required. To achieve this, information technology is increasingly being used as a supporting tool in healthcare, including community and elderly care. This requires that caregivers are expected to be sufficiently digitally skilled. The aim of this study is to get insight in the digital skills of caregivers in elderly and community care. Methods: The ‘digital skills in care and welfare’ questionnaire (De Vries & Gielen, 2014) was used for a cross-sectional measurement of the level of digital skills of 534 caregivers in 7 Flemish nursing homes and 6 centra for day and community care services. Results: A total of 424 caregivers participated in this study: 38% nurses, 45% nurse-assistants and 17% caregivers with another function. The mean age was 40 years and 94% of them were female. Still 21% of the caregivers had difficulties with basic skills such as searching for information and printing documents. Only 28% of the caregivers knew how to find protocols in the electronic system. Almost half (48%) of the caregivers did not have sufficient skills to use functions in the electronic patient record, to create basic documents and to send emails. Caregivers younger than 45 years (p<0,001), with a higher function (p=0,001) and a positive attitude towards digitalization (p