May 17, 2024
“I think a virtualnurse can have the same sort of presence that a bedside nurse does.I like to think of a virtual nurse as pulling up a virtual chairnext to that patient and spending time to ask questions and engagewith them,” Laura Gartner, DNP, MS, RN, NEA-BC, associate chiefnursing informatics officer for inpatient shared services and northregion at Jefferson Health in the Philadelphia, PA, area told JaimeWeimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncologynursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about virtualnursing care.
Music Credit:“Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed underCreative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Earn 0.5 contacthours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) bylistening to the full recording and completing an evaluation atmyoutcomes.ons.org by May 17, 2026. The plannersand faculty for this episode have no relevant financialrelationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS isaccredited as a provider of NCPD by the American NursesCredentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Learning outcome:Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to virtualnursing.
EpisodeNotes
- Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
- Oncology NursingPodcast episodes:
- ONS Voicearticles:
- ONS book: Telephone Triage for Oncology Nurses (thirdedition)
- Clinical Journal of OncologyNursing articles:
- Nursing TelemedicineEducational Encounters: Improved Patient Satisfaction in RadiationTherapy Clinics
- Oncology NurseNavigation: Expansion of the Navigator Role ThroughTelehealth
- Telehealth Use in RuralNorth Carolina Counties: Perceptions Among Patients With AcuteMyeloid Leukemia
- Telemedicine VersusClinic Visit: A Pilot Study of Patient Satisfaction and Recall ofDiet and Exercise Recommendations From Survivorship CarePlans
- Oncology NursingForum articles:
- A Telemedicine-DeliveredNursing Intervention for Cancer-Related Distress in RuralSurvivors
- Breast Cancer Survivors'Satisfaction and Information Recall of Telehealth Survivorship CarePlan Appointments During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Rural Cancer Survivors'Perceptions of a Nurse-Led Telehealth Intervention to ManageCancer-Related Distress
- Telenursing Interventionsfor Patients With Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy: A ScopingReview
- ONS Clinical PracticeResource: Racial Disparities in Cancer Care: Telehealth and Clinical TrialOptions
- Jefferson Health pressrelease: Jefferson Health Launches Virtual Nurse Program
To discuss theinformation in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit theONSCommunities.
To find resourcesfor creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursingcommunity, visit the ONSPodcast Library.
To providefeedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.
HighlightsFrom This Episode
“I think that thevirtual nurse plays a really important role in nurse staffingshortages. With this shortage, we need to get creative and thinkoutside the box so that we can facilitate nurse wellness, work-lifebalance, and satisfaction and make our hospitals the place thatnurses want to work. I firmly believe that nothing can replace thephysical touch, but there are so many things a nurse does every daythat can be done by somebody remotely that can reduce the workloadof that bedside nurse.” TS 3:28
“About eightnurses between these two floors have volunteered to take on thisrole as a virtual nurse, and so they will come right from thatfloor. But there’s a lot of conversation about whether you shoulduse staff from the floor, if you should use other people, thingsalong those lines. But right now, we really hope and think that thenurses we’ve identified for this phase have a relationship withthese units. They know how the units work, and that might help geteverybody working together.” TS6:37
“We found that itwas really important to have a virtual knock for the patient sothat you’re not just popping into a room and taking a patient offguard. Privacy features for the patient—so if there’s a camerapointing at the patient all the time, that gives a patient a littleunease. ‘Is somebody watching me?’ And when we weren’t reallywatching them all the time; it was intermittent care, so having acamera turn away from the patient when it’s off or have a clearindicator that it’s not on.” TS 11:57
“In terms oflessons learned with the virtual staff…I don’t think that you canjust take any nurse off the floor and put them behind a camera.There is a bit of a ‘webside manner,’ if you will. People need tobe comfortable doing things remotely where they can’t touch thepatient, or having a conversation with somebody through a cameramight not be a skill that everybody has or is comfortable doing.”TS 13:39
“I don’tthink a virtual nurse can replace that physical touch. What I see avirtual nurse is, is another member of the care team whose carecomplements the care the bedside nurse is providing. I don’t thinkthat we should be looking to remove resources from the bedside withthis nursing shortage but rather evaluate what our nurses aredoing, identify if there’s tasks that someone else can do for themso that they can focus on the patient. And there are plenty ofthings that a virtual nurse could do so that the bedside nurse canspend more time doing quality work with that patient.” TS21:40
