TABLE 2.
Healthcare professionals' perceptions of digital health competence (an overview of sub‐categories, categories and main categories identified during content analysis)
| Main category (n = 6) | Category (n = 20) | Sub‐category (n = 62) |
|---|---|---|
| Professionals need to be able to provide patient‐centric care through digital channels | Incorporate the patient's needs | Evaluating what is best for the patient |
| Setting goals together with the patient | ||
| Evaluating what can be done through digital channels | ||
| Everything cannot be in a digitized form | ||
| Giving responsibility to the patient | ||
| Evaluate the patient's digital capabilities | Evaluating patients' potential digital readiness | |
| Evaluating patients' age‐related digital skills | ||
| Acknowledge the patient's willingness to use digital health services | Patients have varying willingness | |
| Willingness determines competence | ||
| Evaluate how to provide equal services for patients | Evaluating that patients receive the same quality service | |
| Evaluating the patients' digital competence to ensure equality of optimal care | ||
| Professionals need competence in using information technology and digital health systems | Adequate ICT a and digital technology competence | Competence in using ICT |
| Competence in using the computer | ||
| Competence in using digital equipment | ||
| Competence in using digital programmes | ||
| Design of the digital health systems | Digital health services need to be simple | |
| Digital health services need to be easy to use | ||
| Solving technical problems | Know‐how to reach out for IT support | |
| Competence to solve technical problems | ||
| Professionals need competence in interacting with the patient through digital means | Patient counselling in digital environments | Guiding the patient to use different digital health solutions |
| Guiding the patient to find reliable and appropriate information | ||
| Lack of organizational preparedness to implement digital guidelines | ||
| Patient counselling through digital means can be challenging | ||
| Patient counselling competence | ||
| Guiding the patient verbally | ||
| Using video connection to assist interaction and communication with the patient | Using video channels in interaction | |
| Not being able to communicate by using video | ||
| Interaction is different when using digital channels | Interaction through digital means needs to be reciprocal | |
| Interaction through digital means requires experience | ||
| Competence to face the patient in a humane way | ||
| Lack of human contact or connection in digital health | ||
| Digital health services change interaction | ||
| Competence in communication | Motivating the patient | |
| Connecting with the patient | ||
| Using interaction skills | ||
| Communicating by the rules | ||
| Competence in writing | Assessing the patient's skills in retrieving written information | |
| Documentation competence | ||
| Professionals need competence to evaluate what digital health is | Exploring how to use digital solutions in patient care | Using technical solutions in patient care |
| Using the information provided by digital health services | ||
| Marketing digital health in patient care | ||
| Examining the digital health possibilities | Understanding the contents of digital health services | |
| Staying up to date with the digital changes | ||
| Observing digital health critically | ||
| Exploring digital health creatively | Thinking about digital health from a creative perspective | |
| Circumstances define how digital health can be used | ||
| Using digital health boldly | ||
| Professionals need competence to combine digital means and traditional methods | Competence in finding information | Exploring the information |
| Knowing what to search for | ||
| Having media literacy | ||
| Evaluating the patient's situation through digital means | Strong professional competence | |
| Conducting a patient care assessment | ||
| Relying on the information that a patient provides | ||
| Perceptions of increased digital health services in daily work | Digital health supports the professional's work | |
| Digital health provides service options | ||
| Digital health is a natural part of work | ||
| Professionals' ability to evaluate their own digital health competence | Own digital health competence is sufficient | Basic competence to use digital health services and tools |
| Being confident in own digital health competence | ||
| Being familiar with digital health increases competence | ||
| Own digital health competence requires improvement | Lacking digital health competence | |
| There is room for competence improvement | ||
| Insecurity in own digital competence |
a
Information and Communication Technology.