Telenursing? What is it???
Telenursing can provide many important functions to people who might not otherwise have access to quality medical care, as well as those who do.
Telehealth offers nursing, medicine and other disciplines, the opportunity to provide health-related activities at a distance, between two or more locations, through the use of information and communication technologies (e.g., videoconferencing, the Internet, telerobotics).
Some of the advantages of utilising telenursing are:
- nurses can help more patients in less time due to the fact that there is no travel involved for the nurse
- less nurses are required to reach more people
- emergency room visits and hospitalisations may be decrease as patients don’t have to wait as long to be “seen”
- patients can be monitored more closely
- call centres can answer questions that are within their scope, reassuring patients and saving them a visit to the ER, or identify patients that need to be seen sooner than the patient may have thought, thus saving lives
- providers can collaborate more easily via the use of technology, saving both money and time
- telenursing can improve patient compliance to prescribed care
- patients who are discharged early from the hospital can be monitored at home for complications
Obstacles to Telenursing include the following:
- acceptance by patients who prefer to see health care providers face-to-face
- initial cost outlay may be prohibitively high
- privacy is an ongoing concern
- security of data
- reimbursing providers (may be difficult to track and prove)
