Intensive Care Unit Telecare and How to Improve Bedside Nursing Practice (Research Paper Sample)

Intensive Care Unit Telecare: Improving Bedside Nursing Practice
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Abstract
The nursing profession is entitled to using technology in healthcare to considerable heights. In addition to simpler tools such as telephones, telecare incorporates systems that are more sophisticated such as video and two-way audio systems, satellite, and the internet amongst other communication systems. The advantages in nursing include the provision of private care, decreasing patient visits, data sharing, transcending miles, improving access and outcomes while reducing cost as well as enhancing patient-centered care. However, the implementation of telenursing is marred by cost, dehumanizing effects, equipment breakdown and lack of adequate skills amongst the nurses. This paper seeks to offer a glimpse of telecare and how it can assist nursing outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Introduction
The key objectives behind any the healthcare reforms are expanding the availability of health care to different population segments that have indigenously been neglected. With the increasing involvement of nurses in primary care, telecare offers a chance for expansion of the mandate into remote monitoring and patient consultations. In telemedicine, medical information is exchanged through electronic devices from one site to another aimed at improving the health of the patient. Informatics, telecommunication technology, telemedicine and telenursing are merged in tele-intensive care units to provide expert and evidence-based care to patients who are critically ill (Williams et al., 2012).
Telecare calls for high levels of critical thinking and analytical skills to improve nursing practice while curtailing ICU mortality rates (Williams et al., 2012). In this case, the assessments require unique observation skills coupled with nursing expertise at the bedside. Communication within these environments occurs using audio and video technology amongst nurses and physicians as they monitor the patients. Besides, the system allows them to co-ordinate the patient while assessing the safety of equipment in the ICU, verifying the continuous infusions as well as rendering information to the family and relatives.
The alarms connected to the telecare systems accommodate for early observation of physiological trends thus allowing easy management of adverse effects.
Such surveillance prevents unplanned extubations, dislocation of catheters, critical reduction in blood pressure and reintubation of tenuous patients (Williams et al., 2012). Healthcare organizations are currently engulfed with patient safety concerns where medication errors affect the treatment outcomes in the ICU. Some of the variables that are targeted to intercept the errors include the inadequate nurse to patient ratio and inexperienced nurses. The current shortages of nurses and physicians within the intensive care units endanger the possibility of improving patient safety (Goran, 2012). In this case, adopting telecare within such settings ensures that the patient security is addressed as well as making quality improvements.
Telemedicine allows a team of experts in geographically disparate ICU to offer continuous monitoring as well as interventional services (Goran, 2012). Other implications of telecare is the accessibility to a wide range of patient data such as real-time waveforms, medical history, laboratory diagnosis, radiology images, and reports. Vital rounding offers a systematic method through which data is collected and analyzed to facilitate the nursing process (Goran, 2012). In this case, nurses carry out reviews of individual patients, interpreting laboratory tests and results, medication, trends and vital signs with an additional assessment made in situations with red flags. Besides, cameras are activated to validate the settings of the ventilator amongst other equipment. Telecare also allows the nurses to make additional assessments using the audio system in case the patients are awake. Whenever there are conflicting issues with the documented assessment, the variations are relayed to the bedside nurse in session to intervene accordingly.
Topic Availability
Telecare in intensive care units is a subject the author accessed from previous studies in this field aiming to deploy critical care nurses in a command center. The topic is emerging in nursing practice with inadequate documentation in the profession (Williams et al., 2012). The scarcity of literature calls for more research to improve knowledge amongst the nurses to improve patient care. The Institute of Medicine supports the use of telehealth in intensive care. These services are not entirely tied to treatment, but they incorporate follow-up, health promotion as well as better access to medical facilities for underserved populations (Moss, 2014). Identifying this literature gap, the author plans to use five peer-reviewed journal articles of research carried out previously on the topic. As a result, we shall obtain an insight of the importance of telecare in preventing high mortality rates in ICU.
Information Availability
Teleintensive care nursing has used technology to enhance available resources thus transforming the practice of critical care nursing (Williams et al., 2012). This article has its focus on both the nursing profession and the clients as it informs either party of the impact that telecare has on ICU outcomes and mortality rates. Nurses and intensivists are told of their role in monitoring and treating critically ill patients in addition to providing patient safety. In this article, the technology is seen as a way to influence adherence to best practices such as prophylaxis and providing bedside staff with advice.
Telecare assists ICU nurses with accurate and current information, required to improve health provision. The patients are requested to provide specific personal information in the electronic medical records upon arrival in the unit to allow efficient service delivery (Williams et al., 2012). The collaboration between bedside nurses and telecare is essential in transforming the practice of critical care.
The evolving profession of telecare in intensive care units that include managing patient alerts, performing virtual rounds, providing ICU support and coaching or informing the bedside staff (Goran, 2012). Following a more professional tone, the article examines various barriers encountered in the transition from bedside nursing to a telecare role. The team of health professionals within the intensive care unit is requested to use telecare to make timely interventions aimed at reducing the complications while improving patient mortality. Patients are called upon to share any data or information during the assessments if awake to facilitate appropriate decision making.
Telehealth enables health services to be delivered over distances providing an alternative to the regular face-to-face encounters. This benefits both clients and the nursing staff as both stakeholders seek to attain good health and positive outcomes respectively (Moss, 2014). In this article nurses are requested to use telephone triage to provide clients with health advice, consultation, emotional support, resource identification as well as counseling. Nurses, as a result, can deploy evidence-based, clinical expertise, computer analyzed algorithms to support decision making and critical thinking skills to enhance recovery.
The autonomy of the patient is retained in telecare as the client is allowed to make the final choice concerning care provision. Telenursing allows nurses to address the needs of ill patients regardless of their age and geographical location. In turn, clients are attended in the comfort of their home (Moss, 2014). In the professional setup, Telecare enables reduction of the workload in emergency departments thus eliminating medical errors. Nurses are called upon to exercise telecare and embrace it in routine care as the development of nursing standards emphasizes the associated benefits. The recommendations made by IOM on the future of nursing call upon using telenursing to improve ICU outcomes.
Nurses are presented with information on how they can retain relevance while being proactive in integrating telehealth with routine nursing practice (Moss, 2014). The article provides insight on how clients enjoy reduced healthcare costs as patient data can be tracked in a lively and interactive manner. The case of nurse shortage is neutralized following the less number of patients making physical visits to hospitals hence reducing workload and associated challenges. Telecare also improves the coordination of care and utilization of evidence-based medicine to improve patient outcomes and nursing satisfaction. The resource also provides patients with a channel to be more conversant with their condition and the various examinations being made to enhance proper intervention.
The effect of using Telecare in intensive care units is examined in a staffing model that analyzes how shared vigilance and collaboration reduces patient complications while improving patient outcomes. Nurses are hence advised to use Telecare tools such as population management while adhering to best practices and health protocols to achieve set objectives (Ruesch et al., 2012). Quantitative data is used with personal and empirical experiences to improve patient care with clinical judgments made taking into account any new research evidence collected.
Personal Views
Telecare provides leverage to the resources within the intensive care unit for widening the reach to patients while enhancing the ability of bedside n...