Digital competency among pediatric healthcare workers and students: a questionnaire survey

Digital technologies play an important role in improving the quality of healthcare services, however, many healthcare workers and students do not recognize this and have low levels of digital competencies and skills. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate digital perceptions and competencies among medical students in pediatrics and pediatric healthcare workers in China.

A questionnaire on digital competency was designed. The formal survey was carried out from  February to May 2024 in pediatric students and pediatricians. Data were analyzed by SPSS20.0 software.

The study included 518 valid questionnaires; 199 medical students in pediatrics and 319 pediatric healthcare workers. In all five themes, pediatric healthcare workers and pediatric students had a mean score higher than 3.0, and the former scored higher. There was no significant difference in the digital competency in pediatricians (3.91) compared to pediatric students (3.82) (P > 0.05). Multivariable analysis revealed that gender and education level were related with digital competency, with male medical students (3.94 vs. 3.75, P = 0.021) and those with higher levels of education (3.99 vs. 3.75, P = 0.030) having better performance. In addition, medical students in pediatric surgery scored higher than those who majored in internal pediatrics (4.11 vs. 3.76, P = 0.017).

Pediatric students and pediatric healthcare workers had a good perception on information of digital technology in the medical field, but had limited ability in digital use and collaboration, digital capacity development, and digital content creation. Better medical education and training strategies should be developed for potential challenges in the coming artificial intelligence era.