Benefits and drawbacks of virtual care/telehealth
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Virtual care and telehealth technologies have the capability to greatly expand access to quality health care. Discuss some benefits and drawbacks of virtual care/telehealth particularly related to the collaboration and coordination of care and the role of the advanced registered nurse.
Example Approach
Telehealth and virtual care are touted as a means to improve healthcare services remotely and manage individual health care. The technology is either used from home by the patients or by the doctors to improve the healthcare services. The system can greatly expand healthcare service quality. This paper will discuss some of the benefits and drawbacks of the health technologies particularly related to the care coordination and collaboration and the role of the advanced registered nurse.
Telehealth systems struggle to maintain a sufficient number of clinical staff capable of adequately serve their patients’ population. Registered nurses are in particular are in low supply both in rural areas and urban areas. Coventry et al., (2015) noted that an inadequate registered nurse supply together with the increasing demand for healthcare service and workloads impedes effective registered nurses attending to the patients. Furthermore, the technology improves patients’ convenience while reducing the cost of healthcare systems and increasing clinicians’ opportunities. For instance, it allows patients to seek care closer to their home such that they do not need to have long distance travel for consultations.
Even though virtual healthcare promises to have rapid growth over the decades, it still poses some practical and technical problems to both healthcare providers and patients. For instance, in cases that an individual needs on-demand telemedicine services that is connecting them with healthcare providers randomly, the continuity of healthcare suffers. A patients’ primary care provider may not be able to access records from those visits and resulting in an incomplete history for the particular patient. Shuffling of the service provider heightens the risks that a healthcare provider may not know the history of the patient or have notes on the care routines.
These telehealth technologies’ advantages and disadvantages are dynamic and always change with time. When telehealth usage has a low entry cost, effective security features, and little risks, healthcare providers are more likely to offer services such as telemedicine as a care option.
References
Bull, T., Dewar, l., & Malvey, D. (2016). Considerations for the Telehealth Systems of Tomorrow: An Analysis of Student Perceptions of Telehealth Technologies. JMIR Medical Education, 2(2). Retrieved from https://mededu.jmir.org/2016/2/e11/
Coventry, T., Maslin-Prothero, S., & Smith, G. (2015). Organizational impact of nurse supply and workload on nurses continuing professional development opportunities: an integrative review. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 71(12), 2715-2727. doi: 10.1111/jan.12724