Remote Collaboration and Evidence-Based Care Presentation Script
Hello. My name is Riape Odette Njoya. In this video presentation, I will focus on applying technologies within the healthcare industry to support remote collaboration and Evidence-Based care. Caring for patients does not end after discharge. Healthcare providers have a duty to ensure that the patient has access to quality care and continuing professional observation during their recovery period and to ensure that the recovery from their disease is sustained. Providing remote care and continued patient observation has become one of the most important approaches in nursing care that enable health care professionals, especially nurses, to ensure that the best care is provided to patients as well as promote patient safety to achieve better patient and health outcomes. However, delivering nursing services is prone to various barriers from the patient’s side, including limited access to health care due to geographical differences between the patient and care providers, increased costs due to travel expenses, and risk of social exclusion (Nguyen et al., 2020). From the provider’s side, remote patient care faces various barriers related to collaboration between remote healthcare providers. I believe that the advancements made in communication technologies and their application in the provision of healthcare have the potential to enable healthcare professionals to collaborate remotely to provide care to remote patients as well as support the delivery of evidence-based care. In this video, I present the case of Caitlynn, a patient at the Valley City Hospital, and how using Skype, a telehealth technology, helped in remote collaboration.
Firstly, before I progress with the video, let me share some details on the patient and the case of Telehealth in supporting remote collaboration and evidence-based care. Caitlyn is a two-year-old patient who got admitted to Valley City, North Dakota, with pneumonia. It was her second admission in the last six months, in which she was observed to have a history of breathing problems. The admitting pediatric nurse noted that her weight was 20.7 pounds and that she had some decreased subcutaneous tissue observed in her extremities. It was also observed that Caitlyn had a meconium ileus at birth. After administering her with nebulized aerosol and chest physiotherapy, the respiratory therapist noted that the patient had thick secretions. The final diagnosis showed that Caitlyn had cystic fibrosis. The treatment of the patient requires collaboration between various healthcare professionals. However, it was established that collaboratively caring for Caitlyn would not be easy for various reasons. Caitlyn lived in a rural area away from the hospital. Her parents were separated and living in different towns. Additionally, the healthcare providers collaborating to provide care to Caitlyn were in different zip codes. There were various considerations to be made before she could be discharged from the hospital. It was suggested that a social worker’s services were needed to organize and support Caitlyn’s parents.
The use of Skype supports the remote collaboration between the parents and the various healthcare professionals involved in caring for Caitlyn. More information on the patient that could be collected before she could be released from the hospital in order to use Skype included the availability of technology to support the use of Skype from the patient’s rural home and the ability of all members of the care team and the patient to effectively and efficiently use the technology. Besides these, it could be important to ensure that the patient can easily access and use Skype and that they are willing and comfortable to use it.