ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Health Workforce
Navigating Digital Demands: A Reassessment of Resources for Healthcare Workers' Workplace Well-Being
Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway
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Abstract
Background: Digital innovations are constantly reshaping health care, affecting health care workers' practices and well-being both positively and negatively. To balance this dual impact, it is essential to understand the specific demands introduced by digital innovations and to assess whether existing personal and organizational resources have remained effective in addressing them. Subsequently, this study aims to examine the extent to which resources, such as digital innovation support, autonomy, and resilience, may mitigate the negative effects of digital job demands on job satisfaction and thriving at work. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 292 healthcare workers in the UK recruited via Prolific using nonprobability purposive sampling based on predefined eligibility criteria. The covariance-based structural equation modeling was performed in R version 4.4.3 to test hypothesized relationships and mediations. Results: Digital innovation support, autonomy, and resilience were each positively associated with well-being outcomes; for example, digital innovation support was positively related to thriving at work (β = 0.169, p = 0.016), and resilience was associated with job satisfaction (β = 0.232, p = 0.003). Digital system overload showed a significant relationship only with thriving at work, while digital work overload showed no direct associations with thriving at work or job satisfaction; corresponding direct-effect hypotheses were therefore not supported at the 5% level. Two mediations were supported: digital innovation support showed a significant indirect effect between digital system overload and job satisfaction, and resilience showed a complementary mediating effect between digital system overload and thriving at work. Discussion: In highly digitalized settings, digital job demands did not consistently operate as direct stressors. In healthcare context, resources including autonomy, digital innovation support and resilience were positively related to well-being and, in some cases, mediated the effects of digital system overload. This study extends the job demands-resources model by highlighting the importance of mediating role of resources in highly digitalized healthcare work.
Summary
Keywords
Digital innovations, Digital job demands, Employee well-being, Healthcare workers, resources
Received
10 November 2025
Accepted
26 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Afshin, Mutonyi and Nybakk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Parisa Afshin
Disclaimer
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