Five skills healthcare graduates need for a digital future

Artificial intelligence, telehealth and electronic health records are changing how healthcare professionals gather information, make decisions and deliver care.

For students preparing to enter the sector, technical knowledge will no longer be enough. They will also need to use digital tools responsibly, assess evidence, communicate with patients and make decisions in complex working environments.

These demands are particularly important in South Africa, where digital transformation is taking place alongside persistent infectious diseases, a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, workforce pressures and unequal access to healthcare.

Raeesa Khan, Academic Programme Leader at the MANCOSA School of Healthcare, says education providers must prepare students for these technological changes while ensuring that they understand the realities of the healthcare system in which they will work.

“Education should prepare students for this changing environment while helping them understand that new tools and policies operate within real service conditions,” Khan says.

Five capabilities for future healthcare professionals

Khan identifies five connected capabilities that should guide healthcare education:

• Critical reasoning and evidence-informed decision-making: Students must be able to assess information, recognise uncertainty and explain the reasoning behind their decisions.
• Responsible digital practice: Graduates need to use AI, telehealth and electronic health records safely, critically and equitably.
• Human-centred communication: Healthcare professionals must listen, show empathy, explain care clearly and build trust with patients.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration: Graduates need to coordinate care across different professions, facilities and services.
• Prevention-focused practice: Healthcare professionals must understand local community needs and South Africa’s changing burden of disease.

These capabilities reflect the increasingly complex situations graduates may face. They may need to make decisions with incomplete information, communicate under pressure, work across professional roles or navigate referral systems and care pathways.

They may also encounter digital systems, infrastructure limitations and resource constraints that differ substantially from those experienced during their training.

Practical learning must go beyond observation

Practical experience can help students bridge the gap between understanding a concept and applying it in an unpredictable healthcare setting. However, Khan cautions that the number of placement hours completed does not necessarily determine whether a graduate is ready for practice.

“Students need supervised opportunities to participate, practise, receive feedback and reflect,” she says. “Without sufficient supervision and planning, placements may become observational or inconsistent experiences shaped by the capacity of each site.”

Education providers can strengthen practical learning by co-designing placements with healthcare services and communities, using interprofessional simulations and allowing students to practise telehealth and electronic record scenarios.

Assessments should also examine students’ professional reasoning, communication and ability to involve patients in decisions rather than focusing only on their ability to recall information.

Digital skills require critical judgment

Students should learn how to use digital tools while also questioning their outputs.

“They need to understand how biased or incomplete data can affect AI recommendations, protect confidential information, communicate effectively through remote channels and remain accountable for professional decisions,” Khan says.

Digital tools do not improve healthcare automatically. Their success depends on reliable infrastructure, secure data practices, trained staff and careful implementation.

Where connectivity, electricity, devices or digital confidence are limited, digital-first healthcare services may exclude some of the people they are intended to support. Poorly designed systems can also increase workloads or create risks relating to privacy and patient safety.

Telehealth can expand access to appropriate services, particularly for people living far from healthcare facilities. However, it cannot replace an in-person assessment when a physical examination or urgent medical intervention is required.

Human skills remain essential

As healthcare becomes more technologically advanced, listening, empathy, clear explanations and trust-building remain central to good care.

Patients need to understand their options and feel that their concerns have been heard. This is especially important when their experiences of healthcare are affected by language barriers, poverty, historical mistrust or difficulties reaching services.

“These skills are not separate from technical competence; they are part of it,” Khan says.

Students therefore need opportunities to practise difficult conversations, shared decision-making and culturally responsive communication.

Students must understand healthcare inequality

South Africa’s National Health Insurance Act aims to achieve universal access to quality healthcare and more equitable use of the country’s health resources. Reaching those goals, however, will require more than legislation.

The healthcare workforce must be able to operate across public and private services, urban and rural communities, and facilities with very different levels of infrastructure and staffing.

“Rural and underserved communities may face long travel distances, fewer services and limited access to specialists,” Khan says.

“Students need supervised exposure to varied settings and opportunities to learn from local health teams and communities. The aim should be to prepare graduates to listen and adapt, rather than position them as outsiders arriving with ready-made solutions.”

Students should also examine how income, transport, housing, food security and language affect access to care. Understanding these factors can help future professionals develop care plans that are clinically appropriate and responsive to patients’ circumstances.

Healthcare education must keep pace

Preparing students for this environment will require more than changing a course outline. It will take trained educators, suitable placement sites, effective supervision and stronger partnerships between education institutions, employers, healthcare services and communities.

South Africa’s future healthcare workforce will need to combine digital competence with critical thinking, empathy, collaboration and practical problem-solving.

Healthcare education that develops these capabilities can help graduates use emerging technologies responsibly while responding to the unequal and often resource-constrained conditions in which care is delivered.