Telenursing: Is It in My Future
Sukhpreet Kaur
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR-361: Information Systems in Healthcare
November 2015
Telenursing: Is It in My Future How about telenursing? Could a position as a telenurse be the career change I have been seeking? These questions have been playing over and over in my head from the moment Tomika suggested that I should apply for the position; it seems to offer many benefits. She says that I would be able to monitor my patients, assess and interact with them without ever having to leave the comforts of my own house. I must acknowledge that these benefits are appealing but I still some have some concerns. My passion for nursing stems from my desire to render personal care to others. …show more content…
In exploring the pros and cons, I discovered that the foundation of telenursing is centered on the utilization of effective communication. A key benefit of delivering “nursing care and caring over the phone is the communication process based on active listening, acknowledgement, and accurately reflecting physical pain, discomfort, or fear. These skills if executed efficiently can improve the patient-nurse relationship, which is crucial when nurses are rendering care via technology and it is a primary advantage of telenursing. Telenurses has master the art of effective communication, conveying support, validation, and problem solving via the telephone or other communicative devices (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope 2012). The tele-nurse must also master reflecting empathy and genuineness by utilizing his/hers voice in such a way that the patient will make an emotional connection with nurse. Tele-nurses who master the art of communication are assets in medical field because they increase the quality of healthcare in the communities they service. Along with increasing the quality of healthcare, they will also increase their patients’ quality of life (Jonsson & Willman, 2008). This is a feature of telenursing that I would enjoy doing and it is definitely worth …show more content…
I have discovered that telenursing also has many disadvantages. One prominent negative feature in telenursing relates to the tendency of nurses to mask. Masking is an unconscious reflexive response to the patient-nurse environment that is created as a result of technology. For instance, one nurse compared giving medical advice over the phone to “nursing with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your back (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). Nurses are not able to see or feel their patients, they feel handicapped and inadvertently “compensate for not being able to physically see the patient by building a mental picture of the patient and their environment, which, together with the application of the clinical knowledge and understanding of the signs and symptoms, helps the nurse to gain a better understanding of the of the patient” (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). However, the danger with this over-compensation is that it could mask or hide other important symptoms or illness. Furthermore, some nurses minimize masking by focusing on the patients’ non-verbal cues such as his/her “breathing rate, breath control, and tone of voice” (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). To me, this compromises the nurse’s role as care-giver and refers it to an interpreter. Another concern is that concentrating on tele-communication processes could cause nurses to become too careful
Sukhpreet Kaur
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR-361: Information Systems in Healthcare
November 2015
Telenursing: Is It in My Future How about telenursing? Could a position as a telenurse be the career change I have been seeking? These questions have been playing over and over in my head from the moment Tomika suggested that I should apply for the position; it seems to offer many benefits. She says that I would be able to monitor my patients, assess and interact with them without ever having to leave the comforts of my own house. I must acknowledge that these benefits are appealing but I still some have some concerns. My passion for nursing stems from my desire to render personal care to others. …show more content…
In exploring the pros and cons, I discovered that the foundation of telenursing is centered on the utilization of effective communication. A key benefit of delivering “nursing care and caring over the phone is the communication process based on active listening, acknowledgement, and accurately reflecting physical pain, discomfort, or fear. These skills if executed efficiently can improve the patient-nurse relationship, which is crucial when nurses are rendering care via technology and it is a primary advantage of telenursing. Telenurses has master the art of effective communication, conveying support, validation, and problem solving via the telephone or other communicative devices (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope 2012). The tele-nurse must also master reflecting empathy and genuineness by utilizing his/hers voice in such a way that the patient will make an emotional connection with nurse. Tele-nurses who master the art of communication are assets in medical field because they increase the quality of healthcare in the communities they service. Along with increasing the quality of healthcare, they will also increase their patients’ quality of life (Jonsson & Willman, 2008). This is a feature of telenursing that I would enjoy doing and it is definitely worth …show more content…
I have discovered that telenursing also has many disadvantages. One prominent negative feature in telenursing relates to the tendency of nurses to mask. Masking is an unconscious reflexive response to the patient-nurse environment that is created as a result of technology. For instance, one nurse compared giving medical advice over the phone to “nursing with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your back (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). Nurses are not able to see or feel their patients, they feel handicapped and inadvertently “compensate for not being able to physically see the patient by building a mental picture of the patient and their environment, which, together with the application of the clinical knowledge and understanding of the signs and symptoms, helps the nurse to gain a better understanding of the of the patient” (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). However, the danger with this over-compensation is that it could mask or hide other important symptoms or illness. Furthermore, some nurses minimize masking by focusing on the patients’ non-verbal cues such as his/her “breathing rate, breath control, and tone of voice” (Jones, Hendricks, & Cope, 2012). To me, this compromises the nurse’s role as care-giver and refers it to an interpreter. Another concern is that concentrating on tele-communication processes could cause nurses to become too careful