Like with all virtual medical practice, telehealth nursing is an evolving field. Just like nurses in a physical office, telehealth nurses provide care for patients and support for doctors. Though they might not physically measure vital signs, they're reviewing and interpreting incoming patient results, communicating with patients, and helping doctors make decisions. Nurses can also triage patients and advise them when a doctor visit might not be necessary. In short, many things a nurse does in-person can be performed over telehealth.
Let's look at options for nursing in telehealth and how they can benefit your practice and your patients.
What does a telehealth nurse do?
Just like physicians, nurses can offer specialized care, especially in telehealth. Some examples of telehealth nursing jobs are:
- Urgent care consultation
- Pre-ER visit intake
- Chronic care visits and vitals monitoring
- Caring for patients with chronic pain
- Emergency care/triage
- General visits and check-ups for advanced degree nurses (Nurse Practitioners)
Telehealth nursing is an excellent option when medical consultation is necessary, but getting a physical visit is difficult. Talking patients through administering medication or first aid in disaster situations is a perfect example of implementing virtual nursing. By assisting with their knowledge and skills at a distance, nurses can reduce the time it takes for patients to see a physician.
In many cases, the expertise of a nurse can take the place of a traditional office visit, saving time and travel for patients. It also allows more patients to be cared for in the same amount of time, increasing revenue for your practice as well as patient satisfaction.
Virtual nursing in urgent and emergent care
Nurses provide critical information to physicians and help evaluate the needs of patients who seek urgent care or ER assistance. They can collect information about the history of the illness,walk the patient through taking vital signs at home, interpret the results, and direct patients to the care they need.
In situations of urgent care, this expediency can be vital. Waiting for care in an ER can take hours, and being able to cut down on that time by virtually interfacing with nurses in advance is hugely beneficial.
Virtual nursing in chronic care and pain management patients
Chronic pain management requires constant, clear communication with patients to monitor their dosages properly. Telehealth nurses can gather patient information on a more frequent basis than when waiting for traditional visits. As mobility can be a problem for chronic pain patients, seeing a nurse virtually cuts down on travel and preparation — a massive benefit for your patients.
Overall, reducing patient travel and less time spent seeing chronic care patients works better for you and them. Telehealth, in general, allows you to see more patients more efficiently, and it makes seeing medical professionals easier as well. Having your nurses trained in telehealth only makes this entire process more manageable.
Benefits of telehealth nursing
In addition to seeing more patients more conveniently, telehealth nursing also helps reduce the hours of your nursing staff. Traditional nursing shifts can be grueling and long, but telehealth nursing enables you to plug holes in your roster when your team can't come in.
Telehealth nursing is not just beneficial for your patients, though. Being able to have staff available can help prevent physician burnout when you're busy and understaffed. Simply not working harder than necessary on non-physician duties can help you stay calm and reduce stress levels. Given the commonality of physician burnout, this is a much more significant benefit than many might consider.
Telehealth nursing is the future of healthcare
If you're moving into the telehealth space, finding trained telehealth nurses is a benefit for your practice. Telehealth nurses can cut down on your patient wait and intake times while gathering critical data for patient care. From urgent and emergency care to chronic care patient management, telehealth nursing is vital to moving successfully into the telehealth space.
Moving towards the telehealth space without a partner like ViTel can be difficult as well. A well-formulated telehealth platform like ViTel can connect you with high-quality telehealth nurses, medical providers, and staffing solutions to make your virtual practice run smoothly. Whether you're just adding a virtual practice or you're entirely online, ViTel can help with every aspect of your telehealth practice.
