Evaluating the Impact of the NHS Digital Academy upon Participants’ Perceptions of their Identity as Leaders of Digital Health Change: A Mixed Methods Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Key to the digital levelling-up strategy of the National Health Service (NHS), is the development of a digitally proficient leadership. The NHS Digital Academy’s (NHSDA) course was designed to support emerging digital leaders acquire the necessary skills to facilitate transformation. This study looked to examine the influence of the programme on professional identity formation as a means of creating a more proficient digital health leadership.

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the NHSDA programme upon participants' perceptions of themselves as digital health leaders.

This mixed-methods study recruited 41 participants from two cohorts of the 2-year NHSDA programme, all of whom had completed it more than 6 months prior to the study. Participants were invited initially to complete an online scoping questionnaire, following which 14 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a subset of the cohort. These focussed on individuals’ perceptions of digital leadership, and the influence of the course on the attainment of skills. Three in-depth focus groups were then conducted with participants to examine shared perceptions of professional identity as digital health leaders. Transcripts from the interviews and focus groups were deductively thematically analysed using a previously published examination of leadership as a framework.

Of the 41 participants 41.5% were in clinical roles, 34.1% in programme delivery or management, 19.5% in data science, and 4.8% were in ‘other’ roles. Interviews and focus groups highlighted the course influenced eight domains of professional identity: commitment to the profession, critical thinking, goal orientation, mentoring, perception of the profession, socialisation, reflection, and self-efficacy. The dissertation of practice model, in which candidates undertake digital projects within their organisations supported by faculty, largely impacted upon metacognitive skill acquisition and goal orientation. However, the programme also affected participants’ values and direction within the wider digital health community. According to the questionnaire, after graduation 58.5% of participants changed roles in search of more prominence within digital leadership, with 45.8% reporting the course was a strong determinant of this change.

A digital leadership course aimed at providing attendees the necessary attributes to guide transformation can have a significant impact upon professional identity formation. This can create a sense of belonging to a wider health leadership structure, and facilitate the attainment of organisational, as well as national digital targets. This effect is diminished by a lack of loco-regional support for professional development.