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To determine critical care nurses' attitudes toward and perceptions about the use of telemedicine in critical care, nursing leaders and researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently surveyed nurses working in three critical care units at two university-affiliated academic hospitals and found largely favorable opinions among staff.
A majority of the 179 critical care nurses surveyed (72 percent) felt telemedicine increases patients' survival, but few believed telemedicine prevents medical errors (47 percent) or improves the satisfaction of patients' families (42 percent).
The full study and report appear in the current issue of American Journal of Critical Care, the official publication of the American Critical-Care Nurses Association.
All three ICUs included in the survey used telemedicine intensivists and nurses were surveyed via the Internet about their practice and perceptions of telemedicine. Ninety-three of the nurses in the survey had worked at least one night shift and had interacted with the eICU.
Among other key findings in the survey:
- Contact with the telemedicine unit was relatively infrequent, with 31 percent of the critical-care nurse respondents having being called by the unit 3 or more times in the preceding 6 months.
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A total of 44 percent reported regularly incorporating interventions suggested by the telemedicine staff.
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Some respondents thought that telemedicine interrupted work flow (9 percent), intrusive (11 percent) or resulted in a feeling of being spied upon (13 percent).
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Most nurses thought that personally knowing the telemedicine physician was important (79 percent), and nurses were more likely to contact the telemedicine unit if they knew the physician on call (61 percent).
The survey results show practicing bedside nurses with experience in telemedicine generally support its use, but concerns about privacy issues and the desire to personally know the telemedicine physician may hinder broader application of the technology, said the authors of the survey, each of whom is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System, including:
Margaret Mullen-Fortino, MSN, RN, operations director, Penn e-lert eICU
Joseph DiMartino, MSN, RN, outcomes coordinator, Penn e-lert eICU
Lorraine Entrikin, BSN, RN, eICU staff nurse
Sophia Mulliner, BSN, RN, ICU staff nurse
C. William Hanson, physician
Jeremy M. Kahn, physician
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