Improving Nursing Team Collaboration Through Nurses' Digital Literacy: A Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Perspective

Background Digital technologies have transformed nursing practices, enhancing efficiency while increasing the complexity of information. Although digital literacy enables nurses to manage digital tools effectively, its impact on team collaboration remains underexplored. This study investigates the influence of digital literacy on nursing team collaboration ability and its underlying mechanisms. Method This study was conducted from March to May 2025 in a tertiary Grade A hospital in Hangzhou, China, involving 495 nurses. We employed scales for digital literacy, situational awareness, psychological safety climate, and team collaboration to collect data. The Process Model 6 was used to test the chain-like mediating effects of situational awareness and psychological safety climate on the relationship between nurses' digital literacy and their ability to collaborate within the nursing team. Latent profile analysis was applied to classify situational awareness and psychological safety climate into latent categories. Results Digital literacy significantly and positively influenced nursing team collaboration. Further mediation analysis revealed that situational awareness and psychological safety climate acted as chain-like mediators between digital literacy and team collaboration. From the individual-centered perspective, situational awareness and psychological safety climate were categorized into three subgroups: high psychological safety climate-high situational awareness, medium psychological safety climate-medium situational awareness, and low psychological safety climate-low situational awareness. Conclusion Hospital administrators and nursing team leaders should prioritize the development of nurses' digital literacy and optimize the situational awareness and psychological safety climate in nursing environments to enhance team collaboration and overall healthcare service quality.