Background and Aim: Digital skills of healthcare professionals are recognized as critical for the successful digital transformation of healthcare. The present study aims to examine the relationship between the digital skills of healthcare professionals and the organizational structures of hospitals. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, using the convenience sampling method, 857 healthcare professionals, working in Greek military and civilian hospitals, voluntarily participated. Data were collected between July and November 2021 through a structured questionnaire, based on the Digital Competence framework. Digital skills were categorized into five subscales: information, communication, content creation, problem solving, and safety skills. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 26.0, with p-values 0.8, indicating high reliability. Younger participants showed higher scores (p<0.001). The mean scores for information, communication, content creation, problem solving and safety skills in military hospitals were calculated as 52.1 (SD=32.3), 50.6 (SD=31.8), 48.4 (SD=33.3), 49.8 (SD =30.8) and 52.8 (SD=34.1) respectively, while in civilian hospitals they were calculated as 45.1 (SD=32.2), 44.5 (SD=29.5), 41.8 (SD=32.4), 41.5 (SD=30.8) and 47.1 (SD=34.5) respectively. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals in military hospitals exhibit higher digital competence compared to their counterparts in civilian hospitals. Identifying the organizational factors that promote greater digital competence among healthcare professionals provides essential information to policymakers and healthcare managers for implementing targeted organizational improvements.
Introduction: Public interest in burnout has grown recently in developed countries, as has media coverage. Burnout has been a topic of scientific research in recent years for psychologists and sociologists alike. They have published numerous articles on the identification and classification of burnout syndrome. The medical staff is quite exposed to burnout because they often experience strong emotions such as the desire to treat or save their patients, fear of failure, occasional failures in the treatment of diseases. Materials and methods: This study aims to highlight the impact of the burnout syndrome in the Emergency Department of the Central Military Emergency Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, by conducting a comparative study based on the results of a questionnaire applied to the medical staff before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The study interviewed 65 participants aged between 20 and 60 years. They had to anonymously answer 16 questions marked with scores from 1 to 4. Comparing the results highlighted by the questionnaire, applied before the COVID-19 period, with those obtained in the questionnaire applied between May and June 2020, we noticed an increase in the level of burnout in all categories interviewed during the pandemic. Conclusions: In conclusion, the high level of contagiousness and the lack of a vaccine or treatment against SARS-CoV2 infection are additional concerns for burnout syndrome among healthcare professionals.