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DB 1 Reply 1
Hello Shelleen,
I have met nurses in all different specialties throughout my years as a nurse, but I have
never met someone who coordinates stem cell transplants and I realized I was not very well
versed in the process. I can definitely see the benefits of the telehealth option in your area of
work. Being able to keep ill patients and physicians home and away from the severely
immunocompromised individuals you all care for, undoubtedly helped keep the patients safe.
What a wonderful team you have to all come together in ensuring the needs of those patients
were met, when it would have been easy to just cancel appointments. “And let us not grow weary
of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Holy Bible English
Standard Version, 2016, Galatians 6:9). Keeping this vulnerable population at home, unless
absolutely necessary, will always be the best option and telehealth makes this possible (Wozniak
et al., 2021).
As you stated in your post, a level of digital literacy is required for the patients to be able
to access and use telehealth technology. In a recent study, which included 400 oncology patients
or caregivers, 10% surveyed did not access the internet at all, and those who did access the
internet mostly used computers in their homes (Leader et al., 2021). Thirty percent of those
patients and caregivers also stated that they would not be able to locate and use an app for
telehealth on their smartphone (Leader et al., 2021). Developing a tool to help screen for digital
literacy may help identify patients who need help managing healthcare in a digital world.
References
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Holy Bible English Standard Version. (2016). English standard version (esv) - version
information - biblegateway.com. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-
Standard-Version-ESV-Bible/
Leader, A. E., Capparella, L. M., Waldman, L. B., Cammy, R. B., Petok, A. R., Dean, R.,
Shimada, A., Yocavitch, L., Rising, K. L., Garber, G. D., Worster, B., & Dicker, A. P.
(2021). Digital literacy at an urban cancer center: Implications for technology use and
vulnerable patients. JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, (5), 872–880.
https://doi.org/10.1200/cci.21.00039
Wozniak, A., Rallis, K. S., & Elkaddoum, R. (2021). Telemedicine health disparities in oncology
care. Future Oncology, 17(14), 1695–1698. https://doi.org/10.2217/fon-2021-0022
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