Career Efficacy and Digital Health Competencies for Future Career Readiness of Professional Health Worker: A Conceptual Model

This research aims to develop a model to strengthen future career readiness for prospective health professionals by considering formal personal/internal factors, which are digital health competency and digital health literacy, where these formal factors result from intervention in the health study program curriculum. Digital transformation in the healthcare sector, which has necessitated a paradigm shift in the skill sets required for healthcare professionals. The advent of digital health technologies, including electronic health records, telemedicine, and health informatics, has created a pressing need for healthcare workers who are not only proficient in traditional medical skills but also possess high levels of digital literacy and competence. Apart from that, we also propose career efficacy as drivers of future career readiness. The specific target to be achieved is understanding job readiness for prospective healthcare workers with the involvement of career efficacy, digital literacy, and digital competence. Four propositions are built based on a literature review. A future research agenda is provided to address the validity of the proposed model.