Telenursing

Telenursing

Telenursing and telemed is a relatively new way of seeing advising and treating patients. It is commonly been used in rural hospitals and hospitals who don’t have as many resources available to assess patients and quickly get them the care that is needed. Neurologists and other specialties use this service frequently to do much needed assessments of patients in emergency situations such as strokes. This gives the ER physician an expert opinion before he or she orders further tests and risky medications.

Now telemed has expanded to telenursing, which can be as simple as a phone call between a nurse and a patient, or as complicated as an actual “skype” type chat where the nurse and patient are able to see each other over a video or computer type connection.

When the patient has a need they are able to call in to the nursing service and the nurse is able to listen to their problem and try to help them with their issue. When a video type service is also available, the nurse is able to see and hear the patient therefore the nurse can do a more accurate assessment of the situation. This ensures that the nurse is giving the best possible advice to the patient. Nurses assigned to this job use a computer system and have a set of protocols that have been approved for the nurse to properly advise each patient.

The goal of telenursing is to treat patients with chronic illnesses and advise them according to their symptoms. This can be very beneficial to the patients because it keeps patients with chronic illnesses out of the hospital therefore decreasing the risk of the patient becoming sick with a hospital acquired illness.

The down fall of telenursing is some of the patients do not feel comfortable with using this type of program. The majority of patients with chronic illnesses are in the older population and they do not feel comfortable with the technology that has to be used. They also seem to respond better to a more...