Telenursing: Is It in My Future?
The future is now; nurses and healthcare professionals have used some form of telehealth for the past few decades through webinars, education, and communication by faxes, conferencing, and phone triage. The American Telemedicine Association estimates that within the next five years, 50 percent of health care services will be provided by telehealth (Trossman, 2014, p. 1). Telehealth, the delivery of healthcare education and services by the use of telecommunication technologies and computers encompasses telenursing (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 505), which is the delivery of nursing care, in whole or part through electronic means (Newbold, 1999, p. 1). Since the 1990s through sophisticated advanced technology, ICU …show more content…
Hebda & Czar (2013) have identified a few issues that the nurse must consider in telenursing. The inability to perform a hands-on patient assessment, findings will rely on the skill of the person in the room with the patient. Another is the concern over the speed, accessibility, and stability of the transmission of the data (p. 518). Patient safety concerns result from a system failure; it is essential that a downtime process be established with current policies and procedures.
There is also the fear of the financial burden some hospitals and agencies will sustain to meet regulatory requirements. The start up costs for a telehealth system and the additional employees resources needed for development, implementation, education and training, and maintenance could have a negative financial impact for some facilities.
In addition, there are issues that must be addressed for telenurses. According to the National Council of State Board of Nursing (2015) currently there are only 24 states that recognize the Nurse Licensure Compact, allowing nurses to practice across state lines in participating states. This limits the nurse’s practice or requires an additional licensure in the state they want to …show more content…
I would look to my nursing organization, Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) who supports telenursing and Nurse License Compact (National Council of State Board of Nursing, 2015), for their recommendations on education, training, and any future certifications in Emergency Telenursing. I do not feel I have adequate education and training needed to practice as a telenurse. Nurses, without sufficent training in telenursing, cannot rely soley on beside nursing experience to provide safe, quality, evidenced based practice care, understand the legal implications and healthcare interdisciplinary dynamics that telenursing requires. For these reasons stated, I would not apply for the job unless an in-depth education and orientation program is offered through the agency or
The future is now; nurses and healthcare professionals have used some form of telehealth for the past few decades through webinars, education, and communication by faxes, conferencing, and phone triage. The American Telemedicine Association estimates that within the next five years, 50 percent of health care services will be provided by telehealth (Trossman, 2014, p. 1). Telehealth, the delivery of healthcare education and services by the use of telecommunication technologies and computers encompasses telenursing (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 505), which is the delivery of nursing care, in whole or part through electronic means (Newbold, 1999, p. 1). Since the 1990s through sophisticated advanced technology, ICU …show more content…
Hebda & Czar (2013) have identified a few issues that the nurse must consider in telenursing. The inability to perform a hands-on patient assessment, findings will rely on the skill of the person in the room with the patient. Another is the concern over the speed, accessibility, and stability of the transmission of the data (p. 518). Patient safety concerns result from a system failure; it is essential that a downtime process be established with current policies and procedures.
There is also the fear of the financial burden some hospitals and agencies will sustain to meet regulatory requirements. The start up costs for a telehealth system and the additional employees resources needed for development, implementation, education and training, and maintenance could have a negative financial impact for some facilities.
In addition, there are issues that must be addressed for telenurses. According to the National Council of State Board of Nursing (2015) currently there are only 24 states that recognize the Nurse Licensure Compact, allowing nurses to practice across state lines in participating states. This limits the nurse’s practice or requires an additional licensure in the state they want to …show more content…
I would look to my nursing organization, Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) who supports telenursing and Nurse License Compact (National Council of State Board of Nursing, 2015), for their recommendations on education, training, and any future certifications in Emergency Telenursing. I do not feel I have adequate education and training needed to practice as a telenurse. Nurses, without sufficent training in telenursing, cannot rely soley on beside nursing experience to provide safe, quality, evidenced based practice care, understand the legal implications and healthcare interdisciplinary dynamics that telenursing requires. For these reasons stated, I would not apply for the job unless an in-depth education and orientation program is offered through the agency or