Improving the digital literacy competence of nursing and midwifery students: A qualitative study of the experiences of NICE student champions

Developing competence in digital literacy is an important component of health professional education in order to increase confidence in accessing best evidence for clinical practice. Regulators of pre-registration nursing programmes in the UK have stipulated an increasing number of digital competencies that will be required by future nurses. The teaching of digital literacy skills may be achieved through a range of methods, including didactic, experiential and peer-taught approaches. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have developed the NICE student champion scheme (NICE SCS) to train health care students to deliver digital literacy sessions on using the NICE Evidence Search engine to peers. This scheme has previously been evaluated from the perspective of medical and pharmacy students, but there has been no published evaluation of the experiences of nursing and midwifery students. In this study focus groups were used to explore the experiences of those who acted as NICE student champions. Findings were that student champions experienced benefits, which ranged from greater facility in using the search engine and a better understanding of accessing resources and information about evidence-based care. Student champions described improvements in their presentation skills and knowledge, despite some challenges in facilitating sessions.