NURS FPX 4040 Technology in Nursing Annotated Bibliography

Global healthcare systems seek to achieve the overriding objectives of promoting care quality, affordability, accessibility, and timeliness. These priority areas validate the need to incorporate advanced technologies when delivering patient-centered and coordinated care. Although technologies increase process efficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and convenience, the underlying social determinants of health, such as geographical factors, built environment, and poverty, result in health inequalities. As a result, telehealth technology emerges as a profound tool for intercepting sources of health disparities by bridging distance gaps and providing alternatives for care coordination, interdisciplinary team collaboration, and the overall healthcare organization. This annotated bibliography provides insights into the role of telemedicine technology in promoting patient satisfaction, interdisciplinary team collaboration, care coordination, and productivity. Also, it expounds on organizational factors that influence the incorporation of telehealth in daily care practices.

The rationale for Selecting Telehealth Technology

Often, health problems such as high disease prevalence, limited access to quality care, and delays in care provision are disproportionate to low-income populations and rural communities. As a result, it is essential to address these challenges by transforming care delivery mechanisms and adopting technologies that offer cheaper, faster, and more convenient alternatives. Eventually, telehealth technology improves care coordination and provision by enabling caregivers to conduct distant services such as medication administration, diagnostics, vital sign monitoring, and e-consultations (Kichloo et al., 2020). The current literature supports the plausibility of incorporating telemedicine technology in promoting care quality, affordability, timeliness, and convenience. For instance, I selected four scholarly articles from reputable databases such as Elsevier, SAGE, and BMJ to develop an annotated bibliography regarding telehealth technology. Further, I used keywords such as telehealth benefits, telehealth technology and care coordination, and telehealth barriers to select credible sources. Finally, I applied the CRAAP (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose) test to assess the sources’ credibility in providing insights into the importance of telemedicine.

Annotated Bibliography

Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, R. C., Kanugula, A. K., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the future: A narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family Medicine and Community Health, 8(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2020-000530

In this scholarly article, Kichloo et al. (2020) conducted a narrative review to examine the current state of telemedicine utilization amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on care accessibility. The researchers define telehealth as “a service that seeks to improve a patient’s health by permitting two-way, real-time interactive communication between the patient and the physician at a distant site” (p. 1). In this sense, telehealth utilizes telecommunication and information technology (IT) to provide access to health assessment, diagnosis, interventions, consultation, supervision, and information across distance. Kichloo et al. (2020) reviewed a 2019 report by the Pew Research Center, which indicates that 90% of Americans can access the internet while 81% of Americans use smartphones. The recent increase in mobile technologies and usage facilitates telehealth effectiveness. The researchers conclude that telehealth utilization allows caregivers to collaborate with patients to provide high-quality care while maintaining physical distancing to prevent COVID-19 transmission. As a result, the study supports the contention that telehealth technology increases care convenience, patient satisfaction, and interdisciplinary collaboration, especially for patients in rural areas.

Davidson, R., Barrett, D. I., Rixon, L., & Newman, S. (2020). How the integration of telehealth and coordinated care approaches impact health care service organization structure and ethos: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Nursing, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/20282

In this scholarly study, Davidson et al. (2020) conducted a multinational project to explore the use of coordinated care and telehealth. The study’s objective was to assess how healthcare organizations’ setup influences the perceptions and experience of service managers and frontline staff during the development and deployment of integrated care with and without telehealth. According to Davidson et al. (2020), telehealth and telecare are assistive technologies that support coordinated care of patients with social care needs or chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. In this sense, these technologies enable information exchange between agencies, remote monitoring of health status, and reduce hospital visits, curtailing care costs. Despite these potential benefits of telehealth, various factors, including lack of managerial knowledge, nurse shortage, and underfunded social care services, compromise the technology’s effectiveness. The researchers propose continuous organizational evolution as a way of improving telehealth technology. Above, the research reveals a positive correlation between telehealth technology and effective care coordination, improved performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a result, it is a credible evidence source that supports the topic.

Organizational Factors that Affect Telehealth Technology

Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013

In this article, Gajarawala and Pelkowski (2021) focus on the telehealth benefits and potential barriers. They define telehealth as a “subset of e-health and the use of telecommunication technology in health care delivery, information, and education” (p. 218). Further, the researchers contend that telehealth technology supports various components of telemedicine, including medical education, remote patient monitoring, patient consultation via videoconferencing, wireless health applications, and transmission of imaging and medical reports. The original idea of implementing telehealth technology was to provide quality and convenient care to rural and underserved patients. However, the technology proves effective and successful in multiple medication specialties and settings. According to Gajarawala and Pelkowski (2021), telehealth provides access to resources and care for patients in rural areas where caregiver shortages are prevalent. Further, the technology improves efficiency without higher net cost, reduces patient travel and wait time, and allows for comparable or improved quality of care (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021). However, organizations should ensure data accuracy, promote patient privacy and confidentiality, and curtail fraud to ensure the technology’s applicability and effectiveness. This study validates the essence of transforming organizational culture to assimilate telehealth technology.

Neville, C. W. (2018). Telehealth: A balanced look at incorporating this technology into practice. SAGE Open Nursing, 4, 237796081878650. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960818786504

The scholarly article explores the use of telehealth and the ability to provide healthcare services to patients through interactive technology and telecommunication tools (Neville, 2018). The researcher argues that telehealth includes various routes of care delivery, including patient consultations through teleconferencing, image transmission, e-health patient portals, vital sign remote monitoring, consumer-focused wireless applications, and continued medical education. These multiple care delivery mechanisms translate to benefits such as telesurgery/remote robotic surgery, timely interdisciplinary team collaboration, and communication, cost reduction by reducing clinical visits, and access to healthcare professionals, services, and improved care. However, Neville (2018) identifies multiple organizational factors that operate as barriers to effective telehealth utilization. For instance, the article singles out legal and ethical compliance, fraud, privacy, and malpractice liability as potential barriers to telehealth’s effectiveness. Also, Neville (2018) argues that telehealth implementation is a cost-intensive process due to the overhead costs of software, hardware, and other communication devices. As a result, this study offers a two-sided perspective on telehealth, making it a credible and reliable evidence source for the topic.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Despite the underlying barriers to telehealth’s effectiveness, the current literature links the technology with improved care quality, enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration and productivity, patient satisfaction, and care coordination. However, health organizations should focus on transforming their culture and sustaining norms that support telehealth. For instance, staff training and adequate resource allocations can improve telehealth by bolstering employees’ knowledge of the essentials for telehealth technology and enhancing successful implementation. Further, health institutions need to transform privacy policies to prevent incidences of fraud and other cybersecurity threats emanating from utilizing virtual platforms. Finally, organizations should collaborate with government agencies to adopt appropriate reimbursement models to reduce the cost burden of installing software, hardware, and other devices pertinent to telehealth.

References

Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013

Neville, C. W. (2018). Telehealth: A balanced look at incorporating this technology into practice. SAGE Open Nursing, 4, 237796081878650. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960818786504

NURS FPX 4040 Technology in Nursing Annotated Bibliography