Current nursing and midwifery contribution to leading digital health policy and practice: an integrative review

AIM: To review the current nursing and midwifery contribution to leading digital health (DH) policy and practice and what facilitates and/or challenges this.

DESIGN: Integrative literature review.

METHODS: Pre-defined inclusion criteria were used. Study selection and quality assessment using the appropriate critical appraisal tools were undertaken by two authors, followed by narrative synthesis.

DATA SOURCES: Six databases and hand searching for papers published from 2012 to February 2024.

FINDINGS: Four themes were identified from 24 included papers. These are discussed according to the World Health Organization's Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery and indicate nurses/midwives are leading DH policy and practice, but this is not widespread or systematically enabled.

CONCLUSION: Nurses and midwives are ideally placed to help improve health outcomes through digital healthcare transformation, but their policy leadership potential is underused.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE: Nurses/midwives' DH leadership must be optimized to realize maximum benefit from digital transformation. A robust infrastructure enabling nursing/midwifery DH policy leadership is urgently needed.

IMPACT: This study addresses the lack of nursing/midwifery voice in international DH policy leadership. It offers nurses/midwives and health policymakers internationally opportunity to: drive better understanding of nursing/midwifery leadership in a DH policy context; enhance population outcomes by optimizing their contribution; Develop a robust infrastructure to enable this.

REPORTING METHOD: Reporting adheres to the EQUATOR network, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.