Virtual Nurses Are Coming to a Hospital Near You

In many hospitals across the country, the television in your room may do more than provide entertainment; it may also host a member of your care team.

Virtual nursing is designed to free bedside nurses from mundane tasks, allowing them to dedicate more time to critical nursing tasks. A virtual nurse is a real human registered nurse, not an AI robot.

While the concept of virtual nursing is not new, it has springboarded into popularity as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing nurse staffing shortages.

“Virtual nursing will be in many hospitals across the country in the coming years,” Sandy Alexander, RN, an associate nursing officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Verywell. “It will help healthcare organizations retain experienced nurses who no longer want to work 12-hour shifts at the bedside.”

What Is Virtual Nursing?

Virtual nursing is a new health systems model that uses experienced nurses in remote roles to help support bedside nurses with patient care. Similar to telehealth, virtual nursing has been around for a while, but its post-pandemic popularity is starting to rise, with about 34% of healthcare systems now using some form of virtual nursing. 

Erin Green, RN, executive director of digital health clinical operations at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, told Verywell that virtual nursing has been a long-standing program at Froedtert since 2005. That’s when they launched a “Virtual ICU” to help relieve staff burden from rising patient volumes and acuity, as well as a diminishing workforce. 

Since then, virtual nursing programs have evolved to relieve the bedside nurse of several time-consuming tasks, which in the ICU setting include:

• Nurse triage
• RN-RN consultation
• Admission assessment support
• ICU-general care transfer support
• Watch List support

For nursing units outside the ICU setting, virtual nursing tasks may include:

• Admission database entry
• Discharge teaching
• Medication reconciliation
• Patient education and teaching
• Contacting families
• Answering questions

While patients have the right to decline a virtual nurse for aspects of their care, healthcare professionals familiar with virtual nursing say that public support of the program has been overwhelmingly positive. 

“Our patients are enjoying the dedicated time with a real (human) nurse who is walking them through either admission type intake and/or discharge education,” Steve Klahn, RN, virtual medicine-clinical director at Houston Methodist, told Verywell. “We have supported over 100,000 patient encounters since program inception, and the program is continuing to grow.”

How Virtual Nursing Works

The television in the patient’s room acts as a portal for communication between the patient, family members, and other members of the care team with a nurse who is typically located in a different section of the hospital or, in some cases, at home.

The virtual nurse format typically looks like a Zoom call where all parties can see each other. According to Alexander, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a TV will turn gray when the virtual nurse initiates a call, making it clear they’re requesting access to a patient’s room. Once the nurse gets verbal permission from someone in the room, the camera will turn on, allowing for two-way communication. When the call is complete, the camera will turn off, and the TV will turn to its original state.

The nurse can add other family members who are not on-site to the call, allowing multiple parties the ability to stay informed and ask questions.

Privacy is a big concern to both patients and hospital staff. To combat security concerns, Alexander explains that:

• The virtual platform runs over a secure and protected network within the hospital
• Calls are not recorded in any way
• The virtual nurse asks permission before initiating an in-room call
• Virtual nurses wear headsets so no one else is able to hear the conversation

How Do Nurses Feel About This Approach?

During the pandemic, many hospitals around the country pivoted to virtual nursing to allow for social distancing and remote interaction with patient’s families. The implementation of virtual nursing programs has also been a positive response to growing nursing shortages, especially for bedside nurses experiencing burnout, leading many to quit the profession altogether.

“We have reallocated a fairly large amount of administrative work the bedside nurses were doing over to our remote team of virtual nurses,” Klahn said. “This frees the bedside nurses to focus more on the hands-on types of activities that their patients need.”

In addition to decreasing feelings of nurse burnout, the virtual nurse can also act as a mentor to novice nurses who have just entered the profession. “Expert nurses in a virtual nursing role can pull work from the beside RN and be available to the earlier career nurse for consultation and coaching,” Alexander said. “It allows experienced nurses to mentor, educate, and guide novice nurses on established standards-of care procedures, nursing interventions, and be partners for critically thinking about the patient situation.”

While this program is groundbreaking for many nurses, there are also barriers that could make implementing a virtual nursing program tricky. These barriers might include:

• Virtual nurses need to be highly experienced and have strong communication skills
• Nurses will need good technology skills
• Hospitals will need to invest a lot of money up front for new technology

“We really feel this is a game-changer for nursing,” Klahn said. “We completed a staff nurse satisfaction survey with over 100 nurses overwhelmingly rated the program as positive. There are constant requests for expansion of services.”

What to Do If You Encounter Virtual Nursing

Since the popularity of virtual nurses is growing, there is a good chance you might engage with a remote nurse in a healthcare facility near you. 

If the TV turns gray in your room, don’t be alarmed; chances are you are about to meet your virtual nurse.

Some things that might be discussed with a virtual nurse could include:

• Symptoms you are having
• Medications you are taking
• Your pain level
• Various demographic questions
• Education about your condition
• What is your plan of care
• Questions you may have about your health status