Nursing trend and issue discussion

Telehealth Technology on Patient Outcomes

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What is Telehealth Nursing?

Telehealth nursing helps to bring healthcare, management of care, coordination, and nursing care to patients through telecommunication measures (Bashir & Bastola, 2018). It helps to provide a service that enables those seeking care to find resources and be linked to health centers for advanced care.

Through telehealth patient can control their health need through an electronic system and find resources that may be needed like pharmacy refills or prescriptions that can be requested telephonically. Patients may also talk to nurses for further referrals for ailments.

Telehealth allows patients to communicate through a virtual setting through phone calls, secure emails, and video which provides a safe environment during crisis like the pandemic (Weinstein, 2020).

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Why Telehealth?

Telehealth has provided a way to provided healthcare to rural communities and allowing care to be more accessible and convenient to the client

Anonymity allows clients to feel more comfortable in expressing their health care needs without feeling embarrassed or exposed (Bulls et al., 2021).

Open-ended communication allows users and healthcare professionals to stay connected with a route of communication instead of having to schedule and reschedule clinical visits (Henry, 2021).

During a study, using 315 student, it was found the interfaces were easy to use with well designed, intuitive systems (Bulls et al., 2021).

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Telehealth Today

Telehealth has provided an alternative way for clients to receive care in another form. Telehealth has helped reduce risk of exposure to disease and infections like COVID-19 and reduce patient volume in clinics (Ali & Khoja, 2020).

Telehealth also reached rural levels of care by providing a service to those who may not have immediate access to healthcare.

Mental health care has also been a focus during the pandemic with many losing family members, jobs, and facing isolation. Stress and anxiety has also been factors as well as burnout from essential personal. Telehealth lets those who do not have time to visit clinics or unable to have a source of care.

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Telehealth Technology Integration

Telehealth is being integrated into regular care. Health providers are able to talk to clients about health issues and assess, route, and provide care remotely. Counseling is implemented online and over the phone for health care workers to reach out during crisis or when in need (Ali & Khoja, 2020).

Telehealth systems help to schedule and refer patients to advanced care settings when needed.

Telehealth has also been used to provide education and training to those in need. This includes what to do when exposed to COVID 19 and education on the COVID 19 pandemic.

Telehealth has also been used for contact tracing purposes for COVID 19

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Problems in Telehealth

Telehealth has posed a problem with younger adults with generating costs. Students participated in a study and found that it was more costly due cost of devices used to connect to healthcare professionals (Bull et al., 2016).

Privacy and security has been a concern for those seeking care remotely. A study found that 35% of users had reservations of using this method of health because of lack in trust in the system (Bull et al., 2016). They stated that they do not feel comfortable with releasing their information with concern it may be given to the wrong person.

Users have also expressed concerns with impersonal communication. Interpersonal skills have been studied and found to positively impact nursing care and patient outcomes (Henry et al., 2021). Telehealth may lack the impersonality and connectedness that patients receive during in person visits (Bull et al., 2016).

Errors are also a fear during telehealth. Omissions, loss of health records or lack of access to health records, negligent credentialing, privacy breaches, and technology failure has led to concerns about telehealth (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021).

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Telehealth Funding: Government Involvement

Resource management

Reallocation of funds

Addressing barriers in telehealth

Lobbying and to government provide a way to address problems that are faced with telehealth technologies.

Government involvement and lobbying are important factors for telehealth. It is important to gain funding for telehealth and to reallocate money that is saved from conserving medical supplies by treating patients remotely (Ali & Khoja, 2020).

More funding to the appropriate source will help to adapt telehealth technologies that are needed to give uninterrupted, appropriate care to patients and to address concerns mentioned previously (Zhai, 2021). This can address lack of technologies in rural areas, security issues that may persist, and confidentiality. Funding can also help to link users that currently do not have service or connection suitable for telehealth (Zhai, 2021). Finally, the money can also be used to provided training on how create a therapeutic call with clients.

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Other Topics addressed for Increased Funding

Telehealth provides a means to social distance and decrease mass volumes from flood hospitals and clinics especially during times like an outbreak. A new variant of COVID has surfaced and patients will be turning to care. Using telehealth, we can enable healthcare professionals from being at risk for exposure.

Telehealth offer a unique way of managing patients with limited resources and monitoring patients that do not need immediate care. This allows to free space and equipment for those that need attention immediately.

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Impact on Clinical Setting

Implementing telehealth technologies allows healthcare workers to be shielded from risk of exposure to contagions like COVID (Ali & Khoja, 2020). This is due to a decreased volume of visits to clinics and hospital with provided care through a remote setting. Patients will be able to identify health concerns and receive care without risking others health.

Care is now easier to obtain, and clients are able to have access wherever they are and allow them to manage appointments easier allowing sites to control scheduling with ease (Bull et al., 2016).

As a nurse this will allow me an option to work remotely and provide care to patients in a unique way. In a hospital setting it will help me to keep a manageable patient to nurse ratio as well. It also provides me with resources for my own care regarding mental health and education.

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References • Ali, N. A., & Khoja, A. (2020). Telehealth: An Important Player During the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Ochsner journal, 20(2), 113–114. https://doi.org/10.31486/toj.20.0039

• Bashir, A., & Bastola, D. R. (2018). Perspectives of nurses toward telehealth efficacy and quality of health care: Pilot study. JMIR medical informatics, 6(2), e35.

https://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.9080

• Bull, T. P., Dewar, A. R., Malvey, D. M., & Szalma, J. L. (2016). Considerations for the telehealth systems of tomorrow: An analysis of student perceptions of telehealth

technologies. JMIR medical education, 2(2), e11. https://doi.org/10.2196/mededu.5392

• Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth Benefits and Barriers. The journal for nurse practitioners : JNP, 17(2), 218–221.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013

• Henry, B. W., Billingsly, D., Block, D. E., & Ehrmann, J. (2021). Development of the teaching interpersonal skills for telehealth checklist. Evaluation & the Health

Professions. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163278721992831

• Weinstein, B. E. (2020). Optimizing Telehealth, Communication Amid COVID-19. The Hearing Journal, 73(10), 47. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.HJ.0000719832.63281.90

• Zhai Y. (2021). A Call for Addressing Barriers to Telemedicine: Health Disparities during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 90(1), 64–66.

https://doi.org/10.1159/000509000

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