DigiCAS-HPS: A Tailored Digital Competence Assessment Scale for Health Professions Students in the Post-Covid Era in Vietnam

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital health, highlighting the critical role of digital health competencies in delivering reliable and effective healthcare services. These competencies remain essential post-pandemic to integrate eHealth technologies, telemedicine, and IoT-enabled healthcare solutions into routine clinical practice. This study aimed to develop and validate a tailored digital competence assessment scale (DigiCAS-HPS) for health professions students and to identify differences in digital competence across various demographic and academic groups. A stratified sampling method selected 717 health professions students from four majors in Dong Thap province, Vietnam. Based on previous literature on digital frameworks, pilot testing, and expert review, we generated, refined, and utilized the questionnaire to collect data from the first sample of 366 students to identify the underlying latent factor structure by an exploratory factor analysis. We then applied a confirmatory factor analysis to affirm the structural validity and model-data fit with the second sample of 351 students. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis test determined significant differences in digital competence levels among student groups classified by gender, age, field of study, and academic year. The DigiCAS-HPS scale resulted in 16 items and two factors, encompassing Factor 1 (Digital Interaction & Responsibility) and Factor 2 (Digital Content Development and Software Mastery), and demonstrated valid results in model fit, construct validity, and reliability. Personal factors such as older and soon-to-graduate students revealed significant associations with higher proficiency in digital content development and software mastery (p < 0.05). The DigiCAS-HPS scale might be a helpful tool for educators, healthcare institutions, and policymakers to assess and integrate digital competencies into healthcare education. To address the demands of eHealth, telemedicine, and IoT-enabled healthcare systems, the scale supports the development of a digitally proficient healthcare workforce prepared to navigate the dynamic and technology-driven healthcare landscape.