Nursing students\u27 competencies and digital technologies

Uvod: Digitalne tehnologije so prisotne vsepovsod v zdravstvu in za študente zdravstvene nege je pomembno, da so dobro usposobljeni za okolje, v katero se bodo profesionalno vključevali. To pomeni tudi obvladovanje digitalnih tehnologij. Cilj vsakega zdravstvenika je najboljša možna oskrba pacienta, to pa nam delno omogočajo digitalne tehnologije. Že med študijem se študentje srečujejo z različnimi digitalnimi tehnologijami in vzporedno s profesionalnimi razvijajo digitalne kompetence. Namen: Namen diplomskega dela je ugotoviti, kakšna je samoocena študentov zdravstvene nege o lastnih kompetencah za opravljanje zdravstvene nege pacientov s kroničnimi nenalezljivimi boleznimi in ali menijo, da jim digitalne tehnologije in orodja lahko pri izboljšanju kompetenc pri teh aktivnostih pomagajo in kako. Metode dela: Uporabili smo kvantitativni raziskovalni pristop. Anketni vprašalnik smo oblikovali v projektu DigiNurse. Raziskavo smo opravili v študijskem letu 2018/19, zajemala pa je vzorec 187 študentov študijskega programa Zdravstvena nega na Zdravstveni fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani. Od metod smo uporabili Shapiro-Wilksov test porazdelitve, Spearmanov test korelacij in Mann-Whitneyjev test povprečij rangov. Rezultati: Anketirani študentje so se pri 11 od 16 opravil v anketnem vprašalniku izrekli za kompetentne, pri petih pa niti za kompetentne niti za nekompetentne. Poleg tega smo opazili, da so digitalne tehnologije pri 10 od 16 opravil v vprašalniku statistično značilno vplivale na višanje samoocen kompetentnosti, te povezave pa so šibke in pozitivne. Pri opravilih, ki vsebujejo čustvene elemente, ni bilo statistično relevantnih povezav. Raziskovali smo tudi vpliv letnika in načina študija na samooceno kompetentnosti ter na povezavo z digitalnimi tehnologijami. Pokazalo se je, da so za samooceno kompetentnosti statistično relevantne izkušnje izrednih študentov, pridobljene zunaj izobraževalne ustanove. Razprava in zaključek: Ugotovili smo, da imajo študentje zdravstvene nege že pridobljene kompetence za delo in da so dosegli táko raven razumevanja digitalnih tehnologij, ki jim omogoča njihovo uporabo z namenom izboljšanja procesa zdravstvene nege. Prav tako smo ugotovili, da pri izvajanju intervencij pri pacientu s kronično nenalezljivo boleznijo digitalne tehnologije niso v pomoč, kadar se pri tem od medicinske sestre pričakuje razumevanje ali izkazovanje čustev in povezovanje s pacientom. Da bi izboljšali učinkovitost uporabe digitalnih tehnologij v zdravstveni negi, predlagamo partnerstvo med strokovnjaki z informacijskega področja in s področja zdravstvene nege. To bi lahko prihodnost zdravstvene informacijske tehnologije popeljalo na novo raven, s čimer bi izboljšali vpliv digitalnih tehnologij na kakovostno in celovito zdravstveno nego.Introduction: The use of digital technology is widespread in healthcare. Nursing students have to be well equipped with digital skills to be able to join the profession. The objective of every healthcare worker is to provide the patient with the best possible care, which is in part aided by digital technology. During their studies, nursing students acquire and further develop digital skills alongside their professional competencies. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to examine nursing students’ self-assessment scores on providing care to patients with chronic noncommunicable diseases. Moreover, the study explores whether and in what way nursing students’ skills in digital technology can help develop their competencies when working with such patients. Methods: This dissertation adopted quantitative research methods. The questionnaire used was developed during the DigiNurse project. The study was conducted during the 2018-2019 school yearthe sample included 187 nursing students from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Health Sciences. The Shapiro-Wilk test of normality, Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation, and the Mann-Whitney U Test were used to examine the data. Results: Students, participating in the study marked themselves as competent in 11 out of 16 tasks. In five tasks they self-assessed as neither competent nor incompetent. Additionally, digital technologies were seen to have a statistically significant influence on students’ self-competence assessment in 10 out of 16 tasks. The correlations were weak and positive. The tasks involving elements of emotion have provided no statistically significant correlation. We have also explored the effect of the students’ year and study mode on competency self-evaluation and its correlation with digital technologies. The study has shown that part-time students’ experiences, gathered outside the curriculum, were statistically significant in connection with competency self-evaluation. Discussion and conclusion: The study shows that nursing students have already acquired working competencies and that they have reached a level of understanding digital technologies that enables them to use these skills to their advantage, thus making the nursing process better. The paper also suggests that digital technologies are of no particular help with nursing interventions in patients with chronic non-communicable diseases, specifically when a nurse is expected to be understanding, incorporate emotional elements or connect with the patient. To promote and enhance the use of digital technologies in nursing, this dissertation calls for a partnership between experts in the fields of informatics and healthcare that would take this technology to another level. The effect of digital technologies on healthcare would thus be even more beneficial