In a rapidly evolving world shaped by digital transformation, digital technologies are increasingly being used in healthcare. To use them effectively, nursing staff, patients and their caregivers need the appropriate skills. To date, digital literacy in general, digital skills and (digital) technologies have played a minor role in German nursing curricula. In addition, little is known about the use of technology in nursing education and about effective ways to enhance digital competence. This scoping review aims to identify current literature on innovative and experiential-based teaching and learning methods for developing competence in technology and digitalisation for nurses and informal caregivers, as well as digital technologies that are being used in this educational context.

This scoping review, which will be designed and conceptualised using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for conducting scoping reviews, will take place from April 2025 to January 2026. The search will be conducted on the databases CINAHL, Emcare, Embase, Medline and ERIC. Screening and extraction will be peer reviewed and follow predefined criteria, as well as opportunities for free-text responses. The extracted data will be analysed using absolute and relative frequencies. Free-text responses will be analysed using qualitative content Analysis.

As an ethics vote is not required to conduct a scoping review, this will not be obtained. The results will be disseminated via open access publication in a peer-reviewed journal and through presentations at conferences.

Loneliness and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) constitute significant risk factors for mental disorders, with loneliness emerging as a serious global public health concern. Recent research highlights the role of loneliness as a potential link between early life adversities and current psychopathology. However, most studies have been conducted in high-income, highly individualistic countries. This cross-sectional study explores the interplay between loneliness, social network size, recalled ACEs and depressive symptoms in Ethiopia—a low-income and collectivistic cultural context.

The study included 125 psychiatric outpatients at Jimma University Medical Center in Southwest Ethiopia diagnosed with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or psychotic disorders, as well as 131 non-clinical participants. Trained interviewers administered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Social Network Index and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. We used Mann-Whitney U tests, partial correlation and mediation analysis for data analysis.

We found mild-to-moderate correlations between loneliness and ACEs (clinical group: rho=0.29, p1b₁=0.07, 95% CI (0.02 to 0.13); non-clinical group: indirect effect a₁b₁=0.03, 95% CI (0.01 to 0.07)). In contrast, social network size was neither correlated with ACEs nor did it mediate the association between ACEs and depressive symptoms in either group.

This study replicates previous findings that loneliness—rather than social network size—is associated with ACEs and mediates their impact on depressive symptoms. These results support the transcultural and transdiagnostic relevance of loneliness as a universal psychological mechanism, independent of societal structure.