Estimating Patient Empowerment and Nurses' Use of Digital Strategies: eSurvey Study

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Digital Health
• Patient Empowerment

Background:

• Patient empowerment, the ability to understand health information and make informed decisions, is vital for self-care and adherence.
• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated adaptation to digital environments for healthcare delivery.
• Nurses must assess patient empowerment and adapt educational strategies for new realities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess nurses' utilization of digital resources for patient information.
• To evaluate how nurses assess patient empowerment levels.
• To explore the relationship between nurses' digital literacy and patient empowerment assessment.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 850 nurses who completed a 21-question survey.
• Questions focused on nurses' digital literacy and their methods for assessing patient empowerment.
• Data analysis to identify trends in digital resource use and empowerment assessment.

Main Results:

• 70% of nurses identified decision-making ability as key to patient empowerment; 9.19% do not measure it.
• Printed materials are the most common resource (71.93%), while mobile applications are least used (21.58%).
• Older nurses more frequently recommend digital resources; younger nurses show limited technology adoption for patient training and monitoring.

Conclusions:

• Digital health tools are essential for future nursing practice to enhance patient empowerment.
• There is a need to promote digital health literacy among nurses, particularly younger ones.
• Adapting digital resources and training is critical to support older patients in managing electronic health information.