Introduction
Greetings, today, I would like to present you with a practicum project that aims to unfold a plan for seamless implementation of Tele Sitter into a clinical setting. I would also like to discuss what teaching techniques can be utilized in that process and provide evidence of the potential benefits. Tele Sitter is a monitoring technology that helps nurses track patients’ activity and adhere to their needs in a timely manner. However, it is not always easy to implement new technology into an otherwise traditional routine.
Recent developments in healthcare often take roots in IT technologies, which have become more specialized for particular tasks. Telehealth is one of these practices that has become a standard in many regions, especially where personal visits to a doctor are difficult. It allows doctors and nurses to communicate with patients remotely. Tele Sitter attempts to resolve a similar issue through similar means, although in a different setting. This set of video and audio feedback allows two-way interaction for greater support (Krasniansky, 2020).
Current Issues
Several critical issues such as technology can help resolve or, at least, alleviate their pressure. In an acute care setting, there are many patients that cannot be left alone due to severe risks of causing self-harm. However, the current method of monitoring patients from risk groups is highly demanding for nurses, causing severe slowdowns in their routine tasks and increasing their stress levels (Mo, 2021). Tele Sitter can become a way of reducing stress, although training personnel on how to operate it might be challenging.
Goals
As the outcome of such a plan, nurses within a facility should achieve several goals to call this intervention a success. Patient care is a complex process that cannot be adjusted on the fly, requiring constant addition to nurses’ knowledge and skillsets. Tele Sitter has several components that can cause interaction issues, making it vital for employees to take additional courses. The benefits of Tele Sitter must be appropriately acknowledged by nurses, who should be able to teach patients how to react to these devices. Otherwise, this type of supervision can be troublesome for both patients and medical personnel.
Objectives
The purpose of this project is threefold: first, the project aims to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the Tele Sitter Technology in the field of patient care and supervision in medical institutions. Secondly, it aims to select measures that are critical in creating and conducting educational training for the medical staff on how to employ technologies to achieve optimal health outcomes. Lastly, the project also aims to understand the weak chains in the current medical nurse system in monitoring patients.
Rationale
In the past two decades, the implementation of IT technologies into the workflow of healthcare institutions has become one of the primary sources of improvement. Nurses who take part in this program will be able to help more patients in the same time frame, as a part of their jobs will be transferred to a monitoring technician. However, without sufficient training, this technology can cause a new set of problems related to miscommunication among healthcare personnel.
Methodology
The methodology of the project is mainly based on the qualitative methods of research. Namely, the project conducted qualitative research of existing sources and analyzed the scholarship in the field. It has been found that it is necessary to conduct educational training for the staff to teach how to use technologies and use technology to test patients to understand its effectiveness.
Evidence of Tele Sitter Utility
The implementation of this technology has been widely explored by recent scholarly papers. Their findings suggest that hospitals that introduce video monitoring experience a decrease in falls among patients within risk groups by 10% to 26% in comparison with unmonitored ones (Mo, 2021). However, these percentages are lower than the impact of personal sitters in a similar setting since the lag in reaction remains (Akubuilo, 2020). Despite this disparity, the benefits also include other aspects of healthcare.
Such tools are highly requested among healthcare professionals. Recent surveys revealed that more than half of medical personnel consider Tele Sitters as a suitable way of replacing personal sitters (Krasniansky, 2020). Moreover, they are reducing operational costs by a significant amount by freeing up employees for other tasks (Ferenc, 2017). As nurses’ burnout rates continue to present a danger to the U.S. healthcare system, Tele Sitters become a vital source of stress reduction.
Aspects of Technology Adaptation in a Hospital
Integration of new technology is a difficult task, although there are strategies that increase the chances of success. First of all, medical personnel must understand why these measures are implemented. This knowledge allows them, as adult learners, to align themselves with the necessity to obtain new skills. However, this motivation alone is not sufficient. Employees must accept new ways of conducting old activities as a collective (Ross et al., 2018). Moreover, the efficiency of new technology must be evaluated through its usage by the intended workers and patients.
Considerations for My Organization
In my hospital, there is a surveillance system already installed in many patients’ rooms. However, it is not sufficient for a true Tele Sitter experience since monitoring operations are only able to communicate with hospital personnel to direct their attention. There is a need to upgrade this system since the current one has several deficiencies. Not only do patients have enough time to cause self-harm while a nurse reacts to an operator’s call, but some employees also are not given their accurate phone numbers.
Barriers for Implementation
There are obstacles that can appear in the implementation of this system or its usage. Improper interactions with Tele Sitters may cause a wide variety of troubles, ranging from miscommunication to the leaks of private information. Data collection presents a challenging task for an organization without an advanced IT team. Moreover, some patients have special needs that cannot be detected via cameras or microphones, leaving personal sitters the only option.
Potential Downsides
There’s a social side to the nurse-patient interactions that may be lost due to the mass introduction of Tele Sitter. As has been outlined, the monitoring is often completed by off-site technicians, who may be unfamiliar with patients’ specific needs. Said workers must adequately analyze what they are seeing and inform nursing staff appropriately. Moreover, despite the quality of modern devices, not all details can be caught on camera.
Recommendations
Judging from the evidence and my experience, there are improvements that can be made to the courses and interactions with Tele Sitter. The training must provide sufficient information on how to operate these devices as a nurse and as a patient. Moreover, merely explaining technological nuances is not enough, nurses must be tested for knowledge retention at the end of the course.
Nurses play a crucial part in the success of this system. In my practice, I have noticed several opportunities for improvement. This system relies heavily on efficient communication between monitoring and nursing employees, making phones mandatory. Moreover, to avoid confusion during calls from the monitoring team, nurses can assign themselves to specific patients. Since our hospital uses the EPIC charting system, it is possible to use it to improve adherence to the practices to achieve behavioral changes in nursing personnel.
Timeframe for Implementation
Personnel must be provided with sufficient knowledge, both theoretical and practical, regarding Tele Sitter. Each step in the course takes about two weeks, and at the end of each, there must be an evaluation of the material. Moreover, practical tests in a hospital setting must serve as a critical point for adjustments based on the outcomes of the previous evaluations. In the end, knowledge retention is critical for ensuring that all personnel has gained a grasp on this technology.
Examples of Products
Tele Sitter consists of two parts, aside from the video storage servers, if any are necessary. In the first picture, you can see the portable device with a camera and voicebox. They are placed in patients’ rooms and allow constant surveillance of their actions. The second picture shows the people behind these cameras. These people have access to both the device’s voicebox and to the nurses’ communication channels. A person who monitors the situation is often located in an off-site facility, simultaneously watching over several patients through their computer.
A more advanced version of such a device can include video feedback from a monitoring technician or a nurse/doctor from the hospital. Although more costly, such a model allows a nurse to facilitate presence within the room, which can be beneficial for older patients or those who suffer from mental illnesses. Some Tele Sitters even come with hundreds of prerecorded messages for a patient, allowing the transmission of automated warnings and signals (Ferenc, 2017). While these systems may appear complicated, they can give a hospital many opportunities to optimize caregiving processes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Tele Sitter can serve as a vital link between healthcare personnel and patients that require constant attention. It gives nurses an opportunity to provide care on time without personally monitoring the situation across the clock. The development of a proper training plan may cause some issues due to the complex network of communications that the device provides, yet there are teaching methods whose efficiency is supported by the existing evidence. The quality of care must remain the primary priority for healthcare organizations, calling for further upgrades of the modern Tele Sitters to become even more identical to nurse sitters.
To summarize the material, here are the main outtakes. Tele Sitter can soon become a replacement for personal sitters with the evolution of this technology. It is beneficial for hospital settings due to the reduced workload, which decreases burnout rates among nurses. Employee training can occur in a span of eight weeks and include a thorough theoretical explanation, as well as practical tests.
References
Akubuilo, N. L. (2020). Effectiveness of Telesitter monitoring system as a fall prevention tool in the acute care setting: A quality improvement (27742223) [Master’s thesis]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. Grand Canyon University.
Ferenc, J. (2017). Video monitoring keeps patients safe and cuts costs. Health Facilities Management Magazine. Web.
Ford, D., Harvey, J. B., McElligott, J., King, K., Simpson, K. N., Valenta, S., Warr, E. H., Walsh, T., Debenham, E., Teasdale, C., Meystre, S., Obeid, J. S., Metts, C., & Lenert, L. A. (2020). Leveraging health system Telehealth and informatics infrastructure to create a continuum of services for COVID-19 screening, testing, and treatment. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(12), 1871-1877. Web.
Krasniansky, A. (2020). TeleSitters are entering hospital rooms. How will they change patient care? Bill of Health. Web.
Mo, M. (2021). The use of video monitoring to decrease falls [Doctoral dissertation]. Faculty of Liberty University. Web.
Ross, J., Stevenson, F., Dack, C., Pal, K., May, C., Michie, S., Barnard, M., & Murray, E. (2018). Developing an implementation strategy for a digital health intervention: An example in routine healthcare. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1). Web.
Tech Monitor. (2021). Telemedicine investment booms amid pandemics. Web.
Webster, A. C. (2019). Continuous virtual monitoring of hospitalized patients: Barriers and facilitators to implementation. In 30th International Nursing Research Congress: Theory-to-Practice: Catalyzing Collaborations to Connect Globally. Sigma Repository. Web.