Leveraging digital technology in nursing

抄録

The expansion of nurse-led digital technology in acute and critical care hospital units holds promising potential for improving the quality and efficiency of patient care. Recognizing the need to adapt traditional models of care to accommodate a growing shortage of nurses and higher acuity patients, this article outlines three virtual nursing initiatives that provide real-time support to bedside caregivers and enhance patient safety. A new hybrid model of nursing care, which integrates virtual intensive care nursing, acute care telenursing, and remote telesitting services into clinical nursing workflow, maximizes the size and skill mix of both the remote and bedside nursing teams. Thoughtful stakeholder planning and a collaborative technology integration process has also enhanced sustainability efforts. In this way, new virtual nursing services complement and extend the impact of the primary clinical nursing team, offering tools and structural support that streamlines care delivery processes and eases workload burden without sacrificing the quality of patient care.