DigiCONS: International Online Showcase & Academic Networking Event

DigiCONS is supported through the RGU Impact Accelerator Fund.

‘Co Creating the Future of Digital Competencies in Nursing Education’ aims to bring together nursing academics, digital health educators and international collaborators to explore the impact, relevance and global potential of the ongoing DigiCONS project - Digital Co-Creation with Nursing Students: Enhancing Digital Competencies. This work aims to help academics and support staff, who work directly with students in HE, to identify pockets of digital skills inequalities and support planning for the enhancement and enrichment of digital capacities of students as learners, citizens and future professionals.

As part of DigiCONS, we developed a Digital Competencies Survey (DCS) and a Digital Competencies Toolkit (DCT), a resource co designed with students to support their development as confident, reflective and digitally capable future healthcare practitioners. It explores a range of digital competencies including, among others, digital creation, digital research, digital communication, digital learning and development, digital innovation, digital identity management, digital well-being and AI literacy. It is designed based on previous empirical research, which identified digital competencies gaps in nursing students for learning and future practice.

Participants will explore how co design empowers students as co producers, partners in learning and agents of change in digital education. Co creation can bridge digital divides, enhance student preparedness and strengthen the digital capacity of the future nursing workforce.

As part of this event, case studies from Portugal and Greece will showcase the international relevance and the transformative potential of collaborative curriculum design, followed by DigiCONS: as a nursing specific, discipline grounded intervention that supports digital readiness, professional development and equitable access to digital learning.

Why This Event Matters

Nursing education is undergoing a profound shift as digital tools, data driven decision making, and now AI enabled healthcare are becoming central to professional practice. Yet research consistently shows that nursing students and professionals continue to report low competencies in critical digital research areas. This work argues that addressing digital literacy gaps requires more than generic digital training. It demands discipline specific, co created and student centred solutions.

• There is a growing demand for advanced competencies such as data analytics, digital professionalism and AI literacy.
• We need embedded digital skills interventions that are sustainable throughout nursing students’ education

Event Highlights

Presentation of the co-created Digital Competencies Toolkit (DCT) and its evidence base, including insights from 339 nursing students who evaluated its design, usability and relevance.

• Discussion of co creation as a pedagogical strategy, drawing on the study’s demonstration that student partnership fosters inclusivity, ownership and meaningful learning.
• International case studies from Portugal and Greece, which are translating and adapting the work in their own contexts.
• Launch of a global academic network dedicated to advancing digital competencies, AI literacy and digital wellbeing in nursing education.

Registration

Register for Co-Creating the Future of Digital Competencies in Nursing Education - Eventbrite