According to a new study published in BMC Health Services Research, the implementation of telehealth services can be disruptive to nurses and other healthcare workers.
For the study, researchers from Brunel University in the United Kingdom interviewed community support workers and clinicians — including nurses who specialize in congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — and conducted focus groups after the introduction of telehealth in hospitals in Nottingham, U.K.
The researchers learned the integration of telehealth services were especially disruptive to clinical routines and workloads; face-to-face interaction with patietns; and users who have limited experience and skill with technology.
The nurses also specifically complained of unnecessary workload demands due to duplicate processes, such as the need to enter the same information in two data systems, associated with the use of telehealth.
Nurses also expressed they felt their expertise was being undermined and challenged by the telehealth system, and this was exacerbated by inappropriate training and a lack of technical support.
To make the telehealth implementation process less stressful for nurses, the researchers suggest healthcare providers consider user experience — especially for non-technical users, such as nurses and community support workers — when implementing the technology into their service lines.
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