Hello, SPN members!
Virtual Nursing
Have you heard the buzz around virtual nursing? Has your organization taken the dive yet? Virtual nursing is an exciting and innovative way to leverage the rapid expansion of telehealth technology to support nursing care delivery in the inpatient setting. Virtual nurses work remote from the inpatient setting to support nursing tasks that don’t require hands-on care. Using camera-embedded monitors or iPads to connect with patients and families, virtual nurses can assist with admission, discharge, and teaching-related tasks, answer questions on-demand, monitor the patient’s status, or support the team with care coordination and other behind-the-scenes logistics. These activities free up the bedside nurse to spend more time directly interacting with patients and families in-person and can reduce the nurse’s overall cognitive burden for the shift – and those working as virtual nurses can get a reprieve from the physical demands of a typical shift while still using their clinical expertise to support patients and families.
Although remote monitoring of patients and e-ICUs have existed for some time, the broader model of virtual nursing as a component of the inpatient care delivery model is still emerging. As a result, we’re seeing pilots of various types of virtual nursing models emerge in hospitals around the country. Pediatric hospitals and units are beginning to test virtual nursing as well – in my own hospital, for example, we have piloted an admission and discharge-focused virtual nursing model on two med-surg units and will soon be expanding to additional units as we learn how to optimize the virtual nurse role to support our bedside nurses, patients, and family members.
While it’s exciting to see this innovation taking shape, there are also lots of unanswered questions, ripe for study: what are the optimal duties for the virtual nurse to perform? What’s the right staffing ratio of patient to virtual nurse? Are virtual nurses more effective when they work a mix of direct care and virtual shifts or when they work full-time as a virtual nurse? As we gather and evaluate data from the hospitals that are testing and refining these models, we’ll begin to define best practices for virtual nursing, helping to move this innovation into standard practice.
I’m curious to know what you’re seeing in your organizations as it relates to virtual nursing. What areas are testing use of a virtual nurse? How are they helping to offload the work of the bedside nurse? How are patients and families responding to this new member of their care team? SPN is excited to explore this emerging practice in pediatric nursing – stay tuned for more information on this topic in the coming months!
Reminder: Virtual ‘Best Of’ Conference Coming Soon!
If you haven’t had a chance to sign up yet for the inaugural Best of the Annual Conference virtual event, it’s not too late! Join us on Thursday, September 26, 2024, from 9am-2:30pm CT for a chance to experience the highlights from our 34th annual conference and to network with colleagues from around the country. Members pay just $150 and can earn up to 4.5 NCPD contact hours for participation. I’m looking forward to the chance to hear sessions that I missed in-person at the conference in Phoenix, dialogue with the session presenters during the live Q&A, and chat with other attendees at the lunchtime networking session. It promises to be an incredible event – don’t miss out!