Towards a human-centred approach to digital literacy in healthcare

In today’s healthcare environment, the ability to navigate digital systems is no longer a specialist skill, it is a foundational competence.

Digital literacy, in all its dimensions, is essential to clinical practice, underpinning safe, timely, and effective patient care. Yet, across the NHS, levels of digital competence remain inconsistent.

For many healthcare professionals, digital tools are sources of frustration and anxiety. Gaps in skills and confidence can lead to missed alerts, incorrect data entry, or delayed clinical action - each with serious implications for patient safety.

What is needed is not simply more training, nor another checklist of competencies. Rather, we must reframe how we understand digital literacy itself, not as a fixed set of technical skills to be attained, but as a dynamic human capability - rooted in confidence, belonging, and professional identity. Digital competence must be approached as a developmental process, grounded in the lived experiences of healthcare staff, and intimately tied to their capacity to provide compassionate, high-quality care.

As a midwife by training, and now a doctoral researcher in what digital transformation means on a human and institutional level, I advocate for a model of digital literacy assessment built on a humanist foundation that draws inspiration from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

This framework, originally conceived to explain human motivation, offers a powerful lens through which to understand digital capability in the workplace - not simply as a matter of access or skill, but as an evolving journey toward professional self-actualisation.

At the base of the hierarchy lie the most fundamental requirements: access to the necessary systems, and the acquisition of basic IT skills. Without these, no further development is possible. Yet meeting these basic needs is not sufficient.

True digital competence depends on more than operational ability - it depends on confidence, peer support, and a sense of psychological safety in learning. It is in this middle tier - belonging and esteem - that many professionals find themselves stuck. They may know how to perform certain digital tasks, but they do so hesitantly, without the fluency or assurance that supports good decision-making under pressure.

The apex of this digital hierarchy - self-actualisation - emerges only when professionals are supported to reflect on their experiences, grow in confidence, and integrate digital tools into their practice in ways that are aligned with their values and clinical judgement. At this level, digital literacy is not simply functional - it becomes an enabler of excellence in care.

I believe in a two-part assessment process to understand a clinician’s digital capabilities and confidence that privileges reflection over compliance. Within a model I have been working on learners first undertake a structured self-assessment to explore their own digital strengths and discomforts.

This is followed by a facilitated conversation in which the self-assessment acts as a prompt for deeper reflection, goal-setting, and personalised feedback. Crucially, this is not a pass-or-fail exercise. It is a formative process - rooted in the educational principle that assessment should support learning, not merely measure it.

By embedding this reflective practice within digital literacy development, we help individuals to locate themselves within their own learning journey. We also shift the conversation away from deficit and toward growth. This is particularly important in healthcare, where the pace of digital transformation can often feel overwhelming, and where the emotional labour of care already places significant demands on professionals.

The model places equal emphasis on three core domains: general IT confidence, the use of systems for safety-critical tasks, and an understanding of information governance. These are not siloed skill areas but interwoven aspects of safe digital practice. For example, confidence in basic IT use directly affects the accuracy of clinical documentation, while understanding how to navigate alerts and guidelines within a system can prevent delays in care.

But perhaps the most profound impact of this approach lies in its ability to build a culture of learning. Through cycles of feedback and reflection, individual development feeds into team capability. Learners are not only better prepared to engage with digital systems - they also become co-creators of safer, more responsive digital environments. In this way, digital literacy becomes not only a personal achievement but a collective asset.

Of course, there are challenges. Some clinicians may feel that attention to digital skills distracts from their core clinical role. Others may struggle with the assessment process itself, particularly if it requires engagement with unfamiliar platforms. These concerns are valid - and they speak to the need for flexibility and sensitivity in implementation. Offering paper-based versions of the self-assessment, framing the conversation in terms of patient safety, and embedding the process within wider professional development efforts can help to address these barriers.

Ultimately, the case for human-centred digital literacy is both ethical and practical. If we are to provide safe, equitable, and high-quality care in an increasingly digital NHS, we must ensure that every healthcare professional is supported - not just instructed - in developing the skills, confidence, and insight needed to thrive in a digital world.

By recognising digital literacy as a human journey, not merely a technical one, we place people at the heart of transformation. And that, in the end, is where all meaningful change begins.