Importance of effective digital communication skills

Importance of effective digital communication skills
Effective communication is dependent on various communication media, including verbal, non-verbal, written, and electronic. Systems and structures must be in place to facilitate and govern this exchange of information. In an age of ever-increasing interconnectedness and interdependence, we must be compatible with those of other organisations with whom we work in partnership. 
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to garner, evaluate, store, disseminate, retrieve, and publish patient data.  This space is occupied by an array of ICT media, including computers, mobile phones, SMS, e-mails, radio, web-based chats, and applications hosting video conferencing and distance learning modules. 
‘With the advancement of technologies, the scope of digital communication and the principles that are associated with it helps to focus on the reliability and security as an important part of its functional framework that helps to maintain the confidentiality of a particular information associated with medicines data of the patient and other service-oriented information’ (Liu, 2020).
 ICT systems must be secure, accurate, respect patient confidentiality and adhere to legal information-sharing requirements, whether under the DPA 1998 or formal information-sharing agreements (ISAs). ‘The main advantage associated with the digital communication attributes in the Healthcare sector is that it helps to enhance the scope of communication and makes it even more reliable and accessible for both the patients and the service providers’ (Khezr et al. 2019).
Factors cementing the increasing importance and significance of ICT in furthering interpersonal relationships in nursing were highlighted“… the changing face of present-day health concerns, conceptualizations of health and illness, shifts in the structure of contemporary society, current policies on healthcare and empirical findings on health worker communication and its effect on the patient outcome’. The benefits of ICT should not be seen in isolation and ignore more traditional forms of communication, such as written notes, typed letters and verbal communication, but must complement such media (Usak et al., 2020).