Nurses Favor the Personal Touch in Telemedicine

A new study reports that intensive care unit (ICU) nurses feel that personally knowing the physician providing overnight telemedicine coverage is important.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) surveyed a total of 179 nurses in three ICUs at two university-affiliated academic hospitals to determine critical care nurses’ attitudes toward and perceptions about the use of telemedicine in critical care. In all, of the 93 respondents (52% response rate), 72 worked at least one night shift and therefore had experience with the telemedicine unit, with 31% reported being called by the unit three or more times in the preceding 6 months. Of these, 44% reported regularly incorporating interventions suggested by the telemedicine staff.

The results showed that a majority (72%) thought that telemedicine increases patients’ survival, but fewer thought that telemedicine prevents medical errors (47%) or improves the satisfaction of patients’ families (42%). While practicing bedside nurses with experience in telemedicine generally supported its use, some respondents thought that telemedicine interrupted workflow (9%), was intrusive (11%), or resulted in a feeling of being spied upon (13%). Most nurses thought that personally knowing the telemedicine physician was important (79%), and nurses were more likely to contact the telemedicine unit if they knew the physician on call (61%). The study was published in the January 2012 issue of the American Journal of Critical Care.

“Technology is playing an increasingly important role in health care delivery, and ICU telemedicine most likely will expand in the future,” concluded lead author Margaret Mullen-Fortino, RN, MSN, and colleagues. “Clinicians, hospital administrators, and policymakers can use our results to help design optimal ICU telemedicine programs, evaluate new programs as programs are introduced, and anticipate barriers to the adoption of ICU telemedicine as new programs are introduced.”

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