About four months into a virtual nursing pilot, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill., is seeing positive feedback from patients.
OSF Healthcare is testing virtual nursing on three medical-surgical units at the medical center, covering about 75 patients. They're exploring an approach where technology is installed on TVs in patient rooms to connect them with the virtual nurse, as well as a model where patients are given a tablet to use.
So far, virtual nurses have primarily handled admissions and discharges, and leaders are considering other tasks that could optimize support for bedside nurses.
"We've also looked at things like scribing patient assessments, doing regular rounding in the rooms to check on the patients, completing checklists and providing information on discharge appointments," Jennifer Croland, vice president and chief nursing officer of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, said in an Oct. 24 news release. "There's been a fair amount that we've tried to do and we're really still trying to land on what is best for that virtual nurse to do."
Patients have reported positive experiences with both of the virtual nursing approaches.
"It was better. Sometimes they [nurses] have other patients and sometimes it does take too long," one patient said after his discharge. "But it was nice today," he said of the experience with a virtual nurse.