Current status and influencing factors of digital literacy among clinical pediatric nurses: a cross-sectional study

With the in-depth advancement of digital medical transformation, the digital literacy of clinical pediatric nurses has become a key factor affecting the quality and efficiency of pediatric nursing services. Given the unique vulnerabilities of pediatric patients-including limited expressive ability, rapid clinical deterioration, and the need for family-integrated care-understanding and enhancing digital literacy in this specialty is particularly critical. This study aims to investigate the current status of digital literacy among clinical pediatric nurses and identify its influencing factors.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted at a tertiary Grade A children's hospital in China using convenience sampling. Of 300 questionnaires distributed, 284 were included in the final analysis (response rate: 94.67%). The self-designed "Digital Literacy Scale for Clinical Pediatric Nurses" (with good reliability and validity, including exploratory factor analysis confirming a four-factor structure) was used for data collection.

A total of 284 clinical pediatric nurses were included. The total digital literacy score was 68.95 ± 9.02 points, with an overall moderate level. Age, educational level, professional title and work experience were moderately positively correlated with digital literacy scores (r = 0.426 ~ 0.478, all P < 0.001), and recent digital technology training was weakly positively correlated (r = 0.395, P < 0.001). Given observed collinearity between professional title and work experience (r = 0.782), a composite "Career Seniority" variable was constructed for the regression model. Multiple linear regression analysis identified four independent positive predictors of digital literacy: age (β' = 0.159, P < 0.001), educational level (β' = 0.281, P < 0.001), Career Seniority (β' = 0.215, P < 0.001), and recent digital technology training (β' = 0.370, P < 0.001). The final regression model explained 37.0% of the variance in digital literacy scores (adjusted R² = 0.370, F = 34.892, P < 0.001), with recent digital technology training emerging as the strongest predictor.

The overall level of digital literacy among clinical pediatric nurses is moderate. These findings highlight the importance of both experiential factors (age, career seniority) and modifiable factors (educational level, recent training) in shaping digital literacy. The strong predictive role of recent training suggests that training may be an important modifiable correlate of digital literacy, warranting evaluation in future interventional studies. Healthcare institutions should consider developing structured, scenario-based training programs and personalized learning pathways to support the continuous development of digital literacy in pediatric nursing practice.