Telehealth ‘Disruptive' For Nurses

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Telehealth is considered a way to connect patients and providers, but a new study says nurses often find the technology disruptive

Researchers from Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, U.K., recently conducted a survey of community support workers and clinicians - including nurses who specialize in congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They asked the healthcare workers questions before and after the implementation of telehealth technology.

According to Fierce Health IT, researchers found many health staff, especially nurses, found the technology disruptive. “Three main factors add to the experience of threat and affect the decision to use the technology: change in clinical routines and increased workload; change in interactions with patients and fundamentals of face-to-face nursing work; and change in skills required with marginalization of clinical expertise.”

Nurses said installing telehealth technology in patients’ homes was an unnecessary addition to their workload, and felt it should not be part of their responsibilities. Entering patient information into two data systems also consumed valuable time.

Also, nurses felt telehealth should be used for monitoring and not to replace human interaction with patients. They were apprehensive that lack of face-to-face- interaction would result in poor diagnosis and missed clues to illness. One nurse said, “I think the sort of thing one wonders with is lack of the face-to-face contact. And although you are asking questions and doing specific … you know … sign and symptoms there is always a chance that there could be something that you are only going to see if you are face-to-face with somebody.”

Researchers concluded, “Since the introduction of telehealth can be experienced as threatening, managers and service providers should aim at minimizing the disruption caused by taking the above factors on board. This can be achieved by employing simple yet effective measures such as: providing timely, appropriate and context specific training; provision of adequate technical support; and procedures that allow a balance between the use of telehealth and personal visit by nurses delivering care to their patients.”