No hospital or health system is immune to the challenges of nursing shortages across the country. As organizations look to reduce the administrative burden on nurses and improve engagement and satisfaction, virtual nursing is a consideration.
Many of the tasks performed by nurses in an inpatient setting are repetitive – a virtual nursing unit allows nurses to manage these tasks remotely. The nurses and bedside staff are then freed up to focus on patient care, while those in the virtual unit can monitor patients, enter data into medical records, and more. again.
To better understand the basics of virtual nursing, we interviewed Dr Shayan Vyas, senior vice president and chief medical officer for hospitals and health systems at Teladoc Health.
Q. What is the current shortage of nurses across the country? How does it play out in hospitals and health systems?
ONE. Every health system I spoke to, that we worked with, said workforce challenges were among the top three problems keeping them awake at night. This is especially true for nursing staff. In 2021, nurses are leaving the profession at an alarming rate. According to NSI Nursing Solutions, nurse turnover increased by 8.4% in 2021 and is currently at 27%.
The increase in patient numbers and occupancy rates, among other factors, has resulted in severe physical and mental exhaustion, and ultimately job dissatisfaction and burnout. A 2021 McKinsey survey found that 32% of nurses are likely to leave their current position due to understaffing, lack of support, and the emotion of the job.
President Obama once said that “nurses are the heartbeat of the American healthcare system” and I truly believe that is true. They put their lives first to serve and care for others every day, and we need to give them the tools to care for others more effectively, efficiently and safely and save lives. .
Virtual care offers new strategies to address these challenges; Virtual nursing is a key component that health systems can include in care delivery and transition redesign initiatives.
Q. What is virtual nursing and how does it work?
ONE. Virtual nursing, in simple terms, is the delivery of nursing care and services from a remote location. Virtual nurses are responsible for monitoring multiple patients while collaborating with nurses, doctors, therapists, and other staff providing bedside care.
Virtual nursing units can be centralized (e.g. nurses working from a command center in a healthcare facility), distributed (nurses working from home or other remote locations), or combine.
The adoption of virtual nursing provides a way to minimize the possibility of staff loss due to short-term injuries or other conditions that require nurses to be out of work. It is also a way to expand a nurse’s career, for example, by offering nurses with developing or chronic physical limitations the option of working at a command center, rather than provide physically challenging care in a nursing unit.
Virtual nursing programs can also help engage nurses by offering different options for shifts and work styles. This model empowers organizations by allowing them to have virtual nurses work from anywhere – allowing them to provide much-needed care and services without requiring nurses to relocate to keep them alive. close to the hospital so that they can be on-site during their shift.
It also helps new nurses with clinical support, medication verification, and overall non-physical patient bedside care support.
Health systems that have created virtual nursing programs to enhance the well-being of their bedside nurses have found that virtual nursing can expand a nurse’s career and improve satisfaction job satisfaction for floor nurses by removing responsibility for many tasks that do not require physical contact.
This allows the bedside nurse to focus on hands-on patient care and contributes to higher patient satisfaction because of the responsiveness and additional attention it provides.
Virtual nursing can also allow advanced nurse practitioners like PA and ARNP to virtually connect with virtual therapists and virtual nurses who can assist with a variety of non-physical contact needs when patient care.
Q. How can virtual nursing reduce the administrative burden on nurses and improve engagement and satisfaction?
ONE. While face-to-face care is always required, many tasks can be performed virtual, including coordinating procedures, obtaining permission from multiple care team members, adjusting medications, providing education for patient, answer questions, initiate discharge process, etc.
In many successful virtual nursing programs, administrative tasks such as discharge paperwork, drug matching, etc., have been moved from hospital beds to virtual nursing. The virtual nursing system allows virtual nurses to monitor patients and communicate with them, their families, and other visitors and care team members in real time, including answering phone calls. patient nurse call.
The goal is to provide a new level of support for patients, nurses and bedside staff.
Some health systems with virtual nursing programs have reported high levels of job satisfaction with their virtual nurses. Nurses say virtual roles allow them to spend more time with patients in general. The extra time and additional nature of the virtual and bedside nursing roles contribute to improved job satisfaction for both on-call and virtual nurses, while providing a positive patient experience. .
Q. Please talk a little bit about one of your hospital clients using virtual nursing and the results they have achieved.
ONE. Overall, the benefits of virtual nursing include staff flexibility, potential recruiting and retention advantages, the ability to leverage staff resources, and nurse and patient satisfaction. Another major benefit of virtual nursing is reduced hospital stay, which improves productivity as well as saves time in the discharge process.
Some of the lesser known benefits of virtual nursing are differentiate and improve the patient experience, with potential improvements related to patient satisfaction and HCAHPS and NPS scores. Patients also see significantly improved satisfaction as they no longer have to drag staff by their bedside to help answer questions or assist with administrative documents.
Our client, Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, Missouri, helped address the nurse shortage by having virtual nurses assist the bedside nurse. Virtual nurses can assist with care, education, documentation, admissions, discharges, answering questions and reviewing care plans, or doctors rounding up with patients and their loved ones, along with other tasks.
This unit has improved Saint Luke’s bedside care response rate, increased patient and nurse satisfaction, reduced the burden on bedside nurses, and positively impacted quality and safety for a better working environment. Patients were discharged within two hours of the discharge order, about 20% faster than other units, and they were also discharged before noon at a 44% faster rate.
This has reduced waiting times for patients in ED and reduced treatment time. Furthermore, these benefits boosted nurse morale, improved workforce engagement, reduced fatigue, even improved Saint Luke’s employability.
We need to provide nurses, our frontline workers, with technology to improve their work, their quality of life, and the level and efficiency of bedside care.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
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