Burnouts give rise to virtual inpatient nursing
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Amid clinician burnout leading to staffing shortages, more hospitals are turning to virtual nurses to fill the gaps.
“One of the use cases gaining the most traction is virtual inpatient nursing where remote nurses support the bedside care team,” said Veronica Walk, Gartner senior director analyst, healthcare and life sciences, in an interview with Healthcare IT News.
She pointed out that issues around clinician burnout and workforce shortages are driving this trend. Additionally, the scheme has reduced nursing turnover rates and improved patient satisfaction.
In this arrangement, remote nurses support the bedside staff. Walk noted that the virtual nurses’ tasks have quickly evolved from taking care of administrative tasks to ambient patient monitoring.
However, she pointed out that these technologies are still in their developing stage, and some institutions are too cash-strapped to acquire such systems.
Still, Walk believes that medical systems should keep their tabs on these technologies as it could help them improve patient care. Walk suggests Chief Information Offices to work closely with their executive peers.
“So, in the year ahead, CIOs and CxOs should be looking for opportunities to collaborate on their organization’s most pressing problems or objectives and evaluate opportunities to apply emerging technologies and then share accountability for success,” Walk said.
