Current nursing and midwifery contribution to leading digital health policy and practice: An integrative review

Janes, Gillian; Chesterton, Lorna; Heaslip, Vanessa; Reid, Joanne; Lüdemann, Bente; Gentil, João; Oxholm, Rolf-André; Clayton, Hamilton; Phillips, Natasha; Shannon, Michael

Abstract

Aim: To review the current nursing and midwifery contribution to leading digital health (DH) policy and practice and what facilitates and/or challenges this. Design: Integrative literature review. Methods: Pre-defined inclusion criteria were used. Study selection and quality assessment using the appropriate critical appraisal tools were undertaken by two authors , followed by narrative synthesis. Data Sources: Six databases and hand searching for papers published from 2012 to February 2024. Findings: Four themes were identified from 24 included papers. These are discussed according to the World Health Organization's Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery and indicate nurses/midwives are leading DH policy and practice, but this is not widespread or systematically enabled. Conclusion: Nurses and midwives are ideally placed to help improve health outcomes through digital healthcare transformation, but their policy leadership potential is underused. Implications for the profession and/or patient care: Nurses/midwives' DH leadership must be optimized to realize maximum benefit from digital transformation. A robust infrastructure enabling nursing/midwifery DH policy leadership is urgently needed. Impact: This study addresses the lack of nursing/midwifery voice in international DH policy leadership. It offers nurses/midwives and health policymakers internationally opportunity to: drive better understanding of nursing/midwifery leadership in a DH policy context; enhance population outcomes by optimizing their contribution; Develop a robust infrastructure to enable this.

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Acceptance Date: Jun 6, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 1, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 3, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Advanced Nursing
• Print ISSN: 0309-2402
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2648
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-24
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16265
• Keywords: digital health, health policy, health workforce, leadership, nurses, midwives, integrative review