You are here
enhance: spotlight on digital
As the enhance programme releases its adopting a digital mindset guide, enhance fellow Nikhita Joglekar considers why digital literacy is so important for health and care professionals, and the population they serve.
"In cultivating a digital mindset, developing the understanding and the language needed to join the digital conversation, and making digital transformation about the people rather than the product - the scope for positive impact and change is vast" enhance digital resource guide, 2024
From electronic healthcare records, to digital triage services and virtual wards, digital strategies within health and care are expanding at an unprecedented rate. Alongside this, the ability to interact with and embrace these changes becomes all the more important for everyone involved with health and care. The need for digital literacy within health and care has been outlined in the recent Topol review which highlighted that ‘within 20 years, 90% of NHS jobs will require some element of digital skills’.
NHS England’s enhancing generalist skills programme is designed to empower health and care workers to better provide holistic, patient-centred care within our increasingly complex healthcare system, and harnessing the benefits of digital tools is essential here. The inclusion of digital as a cross-cutting theme for enhance reflects its importance for today’s health and care workforce.
Simply introducing a new digital tool into a workspace does not guarantee its success in improving patient care. Both staff and service users need to have the skills to adopt the technology, and the desire to incorporate it into their day to day practice. The skills health and care professionals may require to facilitate this transition are highlighted within the AI and Digital Healthcare Technologies Capability Framework.
Alongside these requisite skills which make the use of digital technologies more seamless, as health and care professionals we need to consider if we have the desire to embrace these digital tools which have the potential to significantly improve patient care. It is this engagement that will really determine whether a digital technology can successfully embed in a health and care setting. The enhance ‘adopting a digital mindset’ guide is designed to support health and care workers in the journey towards fully committing to digital transformation, through the adoption of a digital mindset. It also considers how we can empower all of our patients to capitalise on these new digital technologies when managing their health.
The digital transformation of the health and care space is ongoing and has the potential to significantly improve patient care. However, for this to be successful, digital technologies need to be adopted and utilised by the workforce. By adopting a digital mindset, we can facilitate this transition in our own settings, and truly see the benefits to our patients, and our systems.