Nurses’ experiences with closeness, competence and patient focus in digital care meetings: A qualitative study

Background: Health care’s rapid transition from in-person visits to digital care meetings has challenged nurses to find new, sustainable ways of using digital technology. Methods: The aim was to describe nurses’ experiences with person-centred care and competence in digital care meetings over time. In this study, a qualitative longitudinal descriptive explorative design was used, and 16 individual interviews were carried out with nurses. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The COREQ checklist was used in this study. Results: The results were presented in four themes: being open to change and new ways of working with patients; struggling to handle requirements; developing new ways of working and focusing on patients despite the distance. Conclusions: : The Digital Competence in Care course helped develop nurses’ skills and the practice of digital care meetings. Training in digital care theory increased nurses’ competence and facilitated the creation of new knowledge. The nurses’ professional role was strengthened by having increased power in decision-making and the ability to participate in changing work routines. Digital care meetings were shown to be distance bridging and complementary to physical care meetings contributing to person-centred care. The increased availability of health care via digital means has affected the consumption of care and tailored education needs for nurses must be met by nursing education programs. Digital care is accessible, efficient and enables care regardless of geographical conditions, its innovative development needs to be based on science and experience and nurses are key personnel in this process. Trial registration: Not applicable.