Digital Health Technology and the New Graduate Nurse: A Scoping Review Protocol

Digital health technologies are being used in healthcare more than ever, which has implications for the daily work of nurses. As the newest members of the nursing profession, new graduate nurses (NGNs) experience great change during the transition to practice experience. The experience of NGNs transitioning to practice while digital health technologies are being increasingly integrated is not well elucidated in the nursing literature. This proposed scoping review will address this gap and aims to explore and describe the literature involving NGNs and digital health technologies. This review will use the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines to search CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, and ERIC databases for keywords and subject headings related to the concepts of "digital health technology" and "new graduate nurses", published between 2020 and 2026. Included articles will involve new graduate nurses with 0-12 months of experience, use digital health technology in the clinical context of nursing, and be peer-reviewed primary research. Articles will be screened and extracted using Covidence and described in line with JBI guidance and presented narratively. The findings of this scoping review will be key in positioning the transition to practice experience for NGNs in an age of digital revolution. Results will be instrumental in enhancing nursing curriculum, ensuring transition policies and procedures are supportive of developing digital health competence and assuring the delivery of better care to patients when using digital health technologies. The contribution of this review will be unique and novel in exploring NGNs and digital health, providing context for the modern experience of transition to practice.