Understanding the Challenges in Academia to Prepare Nursing Students for Digital Technology Use at Workplace

Abstract

Digital technology has transformed workplaces in recent years. The technology adoption in medical institutions has challenged nurses to evolve in using complex digital systems. However, academic institutions often fail to keep up with the rapid changes in professional practice in preparing their students. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five nursing faculties in the USA. In our study, we examined the current status of digital technology and privacy education, and identified the challenges in adequately preparing nursing students to embrace and adapt to the changes in digital technology use at healthcare organizations. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights for the CSCW community to better understand the challenges in academia, in order to mitigate the gap between academic preparation and professional needs of nurses in using digital technologies. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations to address these issues.