1. Information literacy and digital competences of the nurses of primary health care
2. AUTHORS

Theodorou P,^1,2 Vlissari E,³ Flokou A,^1,2 Leri A,⁴ Kostagiolas P²

¹School of Social Sciences, Postgraduate Course – Health Care Management, Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece

²Department of Archives, Library Science and Museology, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece

³1^st TOMY of Trikala, Trikala, Greece

⁴General Hospital of Agrinio, Agrinio, Greece

Abstract ID:

Event: Conference 2025

3. ABSTRACT

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to investigate the level of information literacy and digital skills among nurses working in primary health care settings as well as to study the variation of these characteristics based on the demographic characteristics of the sample.

Methods: The study was conducted between February and March 2024 in 117/122 nurses (95.9% response rate) from the 5th Health Region of Thessaly and Central Greece. The assessment of information literacy and digital skills was conducted using a tool based on the structure of the DigComp 2.2 framework, which includes five dimensions of digital competence (Information Literacy, Communication and collaboration, Content creation, Security and Problem solving). Data analysis was carried out using SPSS 29.0.

Results: The majority of participants were female (80.3%), aged 35-47 years (46.2%), graduates of technological education (51.3%), with good knowledge of English (75.2%, level B2 and above) and very good computer skills (70.9%). Most worked in Primary Health Centres (63.2%) and in the Region of Thessaly (59%), had a permanent position (58.1%) and had total work experience of 9-23 years (44.3%). At the same time, 94% of the participants did not hold a position of responsibility, while 58.1% had not attended a digital education programme related to information literacy and/or digital skills in the period 2020-2024.

Nurses showed a moderate level of Information Literacy (Mean = 3.89), which was positively correlated with work experience and better computer literacy, and negatively correlated with age. Digital skills were also rated as moderate, with mean subunit values ranging from 3.28 to 3.70 and individual values from 2.44 to 4.21. The highest scores were recorded in the sub-skills 'Security' (Mean = 3.70) and 'Problem solving' (Mean = 3.66), and the lowest in 'Communication and collaboration' (Mean = 3.40) and especially in 'Content creation' (Mean = 3.28). 'Communication and Collaboration' was positively correlated with experience and computer knowledge but negatively correlated with gender (lower scores for women). Similar positive correlations with computer literacy were observed for the subsections 'Security' and 'Problem solving'. Finally, perceptions of overall current information were positively correlated with work experience and computer knowledge and were lower among women.

Conclusions: Nurses have a moderate level of information literacy and satisfactory digital skills, which contribute to searching, processing and using appropriate health information. Enhancing these skills can improve the overall performance of nursing staff, with a positive impact on the quality of service delivery and patient safety.

4. Keywords (up to 5): Health literacy, digital competence, nurses, primary health care
5. JEL codes: D38, Ι18, J24, Ο33