Digital Competencies Among Nursing Administrators in a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

This cross-sectional descriptive survey research aimed to study digital competencies among nursing administrators in four dimensions: digital literacy, digital skills, problem-solving with digital tools, and adaptive digital transformation. The sample consisted of 66 nursing administrators, including nursing department heads,  division heads, and ward head nurses with at least one year of administrative experience at Buriram Hospital. The research instrument was a digital competency questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.85. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

The results revealed that the overall digital competency of nursing administrators was at a high level (M = 3.71, SD = 0.78). When considering each dimension, digital literacy had the highest mean score (M = 3.93, SD = 0.79), followed by adaptive digital transformation (M = 3.69, SD = 0.69), problem-solving with digital tools (M = 3.61, SD = 0.84), and digital nursing skills (M = 3.59, SD = 0.79), respectively. Interestingly, it was found that the groups with higher digital competencies than others were the 40-45 year old age group (M = 3.80, SD = 0.71),  the nursing division heads (M = 3.80, SD = 0.67), and the group with 1-2 years of administrative experience (M = 3.74, SD = 0.63). These findings provide foundational insights for designing compentcy development programs and enchnaing the integration of digital technologies in nursing leadership.