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As healthcare evolves at a more rapid pace, new models of care, including virtual nursing, have become a strategy in delivering high-quality patient care and mitigating some of the workforce challenges hospital administrators are navigating.
By David Gutillo, Director, Field Market Innovation, Healthcare, Ascom Americas
As healthcare evolves at a more rapid pace, new models of care, including virtual nursing, have become a strategy in delivering high-quality patient care and mitigating some of the workforce challenges hospital administrators are navigating.
Empowering Caregivers with Time and Experience
According to Mike Brandofino, COO and President, Caregility, virtual nursing is not just a technological innovation. It’s a transformative approach that addresses critical challenges in healthcare.
“The industry has faced staffing shortages and retention challenges. Nurses aren't able to practice up to their high certification because they're doing mundane daily tasks that they have to do and aren’t able to leverage their certifications. Virtual care gives time back to those floor nurses by taking away things like discharges, which is one of the first low hanging fruits of virtual care. If you can have a centralized core of nurses doing discharges and discharge education, you're freeing up those floor nurses with more time. What it's also done is extend the career of experienced nurses. We have some great stories of nurses who have bad backs or bad knees and aren’t able to be on the floor anymore and are about to retire. They got cycled into the virtual nursing program, and you get a double benefit.”
Enhancing Patient and Nurse Satisfaction
One of the most remarkable benefits of virtual nursing is the increase in patient satisfaction. Contrary to initial concerns, virtual care has strengthened the patient-nurse relationship.
“I think early on a lot of people thought that virtual care was taking out that personal relationship with patients. But actually the inverse is true. What we're seeing is because the virtual nurses don't have that shoulder pull or they don't have that code that they need to go run to, they're actually establishing a better rapport with the patients, which is leading to the patients feeling better about the care they're giving, and the patient satisfaction score is going up. So, all around, virtual nursing is definitely increasing benefits.”
Additionally, virtual nursing allows nurses to work at the top of their license, focusing on more complex and rewarding aspects of patient care. Ascom’s recent study in Nursing Satisfaction: What Matters at Work backs up this benefit. The study found that nurses state they want technology to give them more time to spend on direct patient care.
Preparing Your Organization for Change is Key to Success
For hospital decision-makers, the successful deployment of virtual nursing requires a strategic approach, says Brandofino. Understanding the organizational culture and identifying quick wins, such as using virtual nurses for discharge processes, can pave the way for broader implementation. It’s crucial to integrate virtual nursing into existing workflows rather than viewing it as a standalone technology. “The customers that we saw as most successful did things where they didn't just have a centralized core of virtual nurses. What they did is they had a couple of those, but they also cycled floor nurses into the program every couple of weeks. That created a team dynamic. It's not us and them. They're all part of the same team.” This blending of expertise of both virtual and floor nurses ensures that the technology enhances rather than disrupts care delivery. Ascom recently incorporated support for virtual nursing into its pillow speaker as part of the Telligence 7 nurse call system. Getting adoption for new ways of working including gaining adoption for technology as well as the processes, or workflows, that new technology enables.
Looking Ahead: The Role of AI and Data
As we look to the future, AI and data will play a role in virtual nursing; however, Brandofino stresses that it’s essential to approach these technologies as tools to augment, not replace, human intelligence. By providing nurses with actionable insights and reducing documentation burdens, AI can enhance decision-making and patient outcomes. The goal is to create a seamless, data-driven environment where nurses can focus on what they do best: caring for patients.
Integrating virtual nursing into healthcare systems today represents a significant step forward in addressing pressing issues while preparing for the future. As long as we keep nurse empowerment in focus, we can create a more efficient and satisfying healthcare experience for the patients being served.
Watch the full Ascom Asks the Experts interview.