Rapid changes in information technology go hand-in-hand with progress in quality health care delivery, nursing practice, and interdisciplinary team collaboration. The following are only a few examples of how the health care field uses technology to provide care to patients across multiple settings
Evidence-Based Proposal and Annotated Bibliography on Technology in Nursing
Technological advances in healthcare have considerably shaped healthcare operationalizations. Telehealth is an example of health information technology that has found considerable use in modern healthcare. I chose telehealth because of its ability to reach diverse communities and bridge gaps to care access accustomed to proximity. This topic is of interest to me because of how it facilitates remote caring. I did a web search on telehealth topics under the themes of benefits, barriers, effectiveness, and prospects. This search was done on reputable databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar. The search terms used were “telehealth,” “benefits of telehealth,” and “barriers to telehealth use.” This paper details four resources on telehealth under the themes of effectiveness, benefits, barriers to use, and prospects of its use.
Annotations
Effectiveness of Telehealth Use
Casariego-Vales, E., Blanco-López, R., Rosón-Calvo, B., Suárez-Gil, R., Santos-Guerra, F., Dobao-Feijoo, M., Ares-Rico, R., & Bal-Alvaredo, M. (2021). Efficacy of telemedicine and telemonitoring in at-home monitoring of patients with COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(13), 2893. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10132893
This quantitative research paper assesses whether telemedicine and telemonitoring are clinically useful in monitoring COVID-19 patients under home-based care. Findings from the articles reveal that these technologies are associated with lowered mortality rates and pressure on hospital services accustomed to the growing number of patients requiring health services. It highlights how healthcare information technologies such as telehealth have positively impacted care approaches. By enabling remote caring, these devices facilitate contact between patients and their caregivers. This enables them to have timely information on the prognosis of the disease and lessens the burden that would have otherwise resulted from hospital visitations. Telehealth maintains relevance to nurses and other members of interdisciplinary teams as it enables them to contact their patients without physically being with them. This provides an easy yet efficient platform for monitoring patients and informing any adjustments to the care plan. This resource was selected because it details how telehealth was used to maintain contact with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. It gives insight into how this technology can be leveraged to provide care for other patient groups.
Benefits of Telehealth use
Hoffman, D. A. (2020). Increasing access to care: Telehealth during COVID-19. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa043
This review article analyses the benefits of telehealth in increasing access to care. The recent covid pandemic gave insight into the utility of telehealth in bridging care gaps accustomed to poor access to care. At the height of the pandemic, when movement restrictions were apparent, telehealth provided an efficient, effective, cheap, and convenient way to access healthcare services. Telehealth remains beneficial in enhancing access to care. It bridges gasp attributable to remote geographical localities and high logistical costs. Telehealth ensures patients’ safety and quality care by ensuring that patients are in contact with their caregivers. This eliminates safety compromises that may result from self-treatment and not accessing care services. This article maintains relevance to nurses and other members of interdisciplinary healthcare teams as it informs them on how they can utilize technology to improve care to patients. This will be in alignment with their ethical mandate of fairness and beneficence. This article was selected because it highlights how the traditional problem of access to care affecting many societies can be addressed using health information technologies.
Barriers to Telehealth Use
Casariego-Vales, E., Blanco-López, R., Rosón-Calvo, B., Suárez-Gil, R., Santos-Guerra, F., Dobao-Feijoo, M., Ares-Rico, R., & Bal-Alvaredo, M. (2021). Efficacy of telemedicine and telemonitoring in at-home monitoring of patients with COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(13), 2893. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10132893
This review article outlines the barriers and challenges to telemedicine use among persons with disabilities. Challenges to telehealth use that requires an address for enhanced effectiveness of their use include operational challenges, legislative and regulatory barriers, infrastructural barriers, and communication barriers. Barriers to telehe