Leveraging Clinical Preceptorship to Enhance Nursing Students’ Readiness in Digital Health

Abstract

As technology continues to advance rapidly and digitalization becomes more prevalent in health care, the nursing profession must also adapt to these changes. The integration of informatics in nursing education and practice should serve as a catalyst for shaping future nursing leaders who can drive innovation, influence policy, and contribute to the advancement of health care. During the final stage of their undergraduate education, nursing students would have gained substantive knowledge and have been exposed to different digital health technologies and medical devices used in the delivery of clinical care. However, their ability to assimilate this knowledge and make sense of how nursing informatics and digital health relate to their practice roles may not be as readily visible to them. Nursing preceptors can play a vital role in assisting students discover the potential of technology in health care and nursing practice. Yet, despite the significance of clinical learning experiences and the important role nursing preceptors play in the development of nursing students, there is limited discussion in the literature with respect to their role in relation to digital health readiness among nursing students. The purpose of this discussion paper is to illuminate the importance of nursing informatics as a foundational knowledge base for Canadian nurses and argue the need for advancing clinical nursing education, particularly preceptorship experiences, as a potential pathway for enhancing nursing students’ readiness in digital health and to facilitate their transition into the registered nurse role in digitally enabled work environments.