Virtual sitting has been touted as a technology that can help prevent falls in patients while reducing burnout in healthcare workers. But what do nurses actually think about it?
Researchers surveyed 74 of them from Renton, Wash.-based Providence, twice a day for three weeks, and found that virtual sitting — where caregivers monitor patients remotely — improved their "emotional labor" and "emotional exhaustion" over in-person sitting.
"This study supports our experience that virtual sitting improves the well-being of our nurses and helps maintain patient safety," said study co-author Emily Anderson, MSN, RN, a nurse manager at Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska, in a Nov. 16 news release. Nurses at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Wash., also participated in the study.
Virtual sitting's effects were most pronounced among nurses lower in career commitment, according to the study published in the Western Journal of Nursing Research. Providence and virtual sitting company AvaSure funded the research.