Telenursing: The Future Is Now - Essay Example

Telenursing...the Future is Now Introduction The word ‘telehealth’ has been derived from the term ‘telemedicine’, which is explained as the process of exchange of medical information between two or more sites with the help of electronic media. The term ‘telehealth’ explains the process of providing healthcare information and services to the clients by using telecommunication technologies, which can also be addressed as ‘telenursing’ (American Telemedicine Association, n.d). ‘Telenursing’ is fundamentally identified as a component of telehealth. It is also described as a terminology used to define the technology used to deliver nursing care and conduct the nursing practise with the use of electronic media (Fairchild et al, 2007). Emphasising this particular terminology, the essay gives an overview on telenursing, along with a brief discussion of its advantages and disadvantages. Data Analysis Telenursing is gaining popularity in the recent times, as it has proved beneficial to cut down costs for healthcare organisations when providing nursing facilities. It also eases the availability of proper healthcare facilities even in sparse areas. The consensus proves that the number of ill population is increasing, which is again increasing the need of telenursing today. The telecommunication technology combined with the education to provide nursing care has helped telehealth nurses largely to serve patients located distantly (American Telemedicine Association, 2011). With due significance, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has extensively researched on the fact that the crisis of nurses all over the world is huge and the predicted proportion of nurses are so low that this number would have an adverse effect on the health system of the world. This gap could only be fulfilled with the use of tele-nurses (Jordanova & Lievens, 2008). With the advent of the new era of technology, societal structure has changed dramatically exhibiting a huge difference between the preferences, lifestyle choices and working structures of people. Health has always been the foremost priority in human life, but due to the lack of timing, it has been observed that people has been compromising their health to work. This is where telenursing comes as a saviour. Telenursing helps people to avail nursing facilities with the flexibility of time (College of Registered Nurses, 2008). The foremost advantage telenursing can be discussed as the facility it provides for rapid response to the disease. The patients who need to be immediately taken care of are the best sector where telenursing is efficient, as in such situations, a minute’s delay can be fatal. The patient can even consult to the nurses irrespective of their geographical location and time (College of Registered Nurses, 2008). From the perspective of a nurse, it becomes easier for the practitioners to work even at remote areas to offer needful emergency care services wherein the efficiency and quality of the services can be retained, as the employees do not have to face rigorous travel routines. The flexible place and hour of work also increases the satisfaction of the employees, which further contributes to the quality of their work as well (George et al, 2009). The telenursing facilities also help in reviewing nursing techniques used through data sharing on a periodic basis. These facilities of communication play a crucial role in enhancing knowledge of the nurses, which further increases efficiency among these practitioners. Again, this data sharing technique in the telenursing helps in increasing the education base of the patients with a better idea of the disease and the methods they are being treated with (George et al, 2009). On contradiction to the above-mentioned benefits yielded from telenursing, the key challenge of this mode of healthcare facilities is its high dependence on technical soundness. This is most common in remote areas where people are not gadget savvy or lack proper infrastructure to support such advance technology supervision. Consequently, this method of healthcare proves to be failure in most of the remote areas (George et al, 2009). The knowledge base of nurses in treating the patients through the telenursing system is also asserted as a big question. If the healthcare organisation is not concerned about the standard of their nurses, there are chances that the nurses are lack in criteria mentioned by the American Academy for Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) and American Telemedicine Association (ATA) (Westra, 2012). It is noteworthy in this context that as per ethical norms of medical service, secrecy is highly essential, which is difficult to maintain in case of the telenursing. There are chances that the patients’ privacy or confidentiality about the disease that should be maintained comes at stake in such scenario. Another regulatory issue witnessed in relation to telenursing is that care deliverance through the system is yet not deemed as mainstream nursing care. Hence, the confidence of the people on this type of medical assistance is very low, which further affects its efficiency largely (Hutcherson, 2001). The glitches in proper care in telenursing can further be a reason that the nurses have to treat faceless patients. The disease may not be diagnosed in a proper way, as the nurses have to depend on the patients’ interpretation of the problem, which can always deviate from the actual one (George et al, 2009). Conclusions and Recommendations Observably, telenursing has definitely emerged as a blessing for the urban people, but patients who are located in remote areas lack proper infrastructure to avail medical assistance through the stated mode. In addition, there are chances that the patient can be misled by the nurses who are not well-trained but are working for healthcare companies involved in telehealth care deliverance procedure. The only way in which the telenursing business can be developed is by increasing the transparency of its operational processes and by following the ethical norms of employment so that the services provided meets the requirements of the patients effectively (College of Registered Nurses, 2008). Considering care for elderly people, suffering from chronic diseases, needs to be assisted by nurses who are well trained and have a good medical background. These patients are to be treated with special care immediately. Rapid response can only be possible to a medical practitioner who has a detailed knowledge (Snooks & Kumar, 2011). Correspondingly, it can be asserted that Mr. Manuel has been practising for 12 years and has a good knowledge to assist people in critical conditions with need for immediate medical assistance. The requirement and the qualification that Mr. Manuel has, can therefore be a perfect match to serve through telehealth. It can accordingly be recommended that Mr. Manuel can consider about joining the company for providing health assistance to the elderly patients through telenursing. References American Telemedicine Association. (2011). Telehealth nursing fact sheet. ATA Telehealth Nursing SIG, pp. 1-2. College of Registered Nurses. (2008). Telenursing practice guidelines. Telenursing Practice, pp. 1-26. Fairchild, L. S., Elfrink, V. & Deickman, A. (2007). Patient Safety, Telenursing, and Telehealth. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, 3, pp. 1-7. George, I., Baker, J., Karabatsos, G., Brimble, R., Wilson, A. & Cullen, M. (2009). How safe is telenursing from home? Telenursing, 16, pp. 119-123. Hutcherson, C. M. (2001). Legal issues emerging in telehealth. Legal Considerations for Nurses Practicing in a Telehealth Setting, 6(3). Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume62001/No3Sept01/LegalConsiderations.html Lievens, F. & Jordanova, M. (2008). Telenursing implementation strategies and success factors. The International Educational and Networking Forum for Ehealth, Telemedicine and Health Ict, pp. 56-59. Snooks, H. & Kumar, S. (2011). Telenursing. New York: Springer London Dordrecht Heidelberg. Westra, B. (2012). Integrating quality, safety and education (QSEN) strategies into nursing competency. Telenursing and Remote Access Telehealth, pp. 1-20. Read More