Clear responsibilities, nurse involvement, and connected technology can help hospitals make virtual nursing part of everyday patient care.
Introducing virtual nursing changes how care teams work together. Hospitals need to determine which responsibilities can be handled remotely, how virtual nurses will coordinate with bedside staff, and what information they need to support patients effectively.
The latest episode of the Secure Insights podcast explores those decisions and the operational challenges that can stand in the way of successful implementation.
Host Alex Walthers, Team Lead, Technology Integration Partners, Axis Communications, is joined by Tim Kelley, Chief Strategy Officer, TeleRay, and Paul Baratta, Segment Development Manager for Healthcare, Axis Communications, to examine three major hurdles to virtual nursing: workflow and role clarity, staff buy-in, and technical integration.
The conversation begins with the demands placed on bedside nurses. Alongside clinical care, nurses manage documentation and routine requests that can compete for their attention. As hospitals contend with staffing shortages, virtual nursing offers a way to share some of those responsibilities, giving bedside teams more time to focus on care that requires their physical presence and clinical expertise.
Making that arrangement work requires clear expectations. Tim and Paul discuss how hospitals can divide responsibilities between bedside and virtual teams, including patient education, discharge support, and virtual rounding. The aim is to make help readily available without creating another task for nurses to manage.
Staff involvement is equally important. Bringing bedside nurses into workflow design gives hospitals a clearer understanding of where support would be useful and where a proposed process might add friction. The discussion considers the difference between asking nurses to adapt to technology and creating an approach they actually want to adopt.
The guests also address concerns about the patient relationship. Virtual nursing can introduce another member of the care team while allowing bedside nurses to spend more focused time with patients. Remote conversations can support education and bring family members into discussions about care. For experienced nurses who have stepped away from bedside work, virtual roles may also offer a way to continue using their clinical knowledge.
Technical integration helps support these interactions. Access to electronic health records and medical imaging helps virtual clinicians review relevant information during consultations. Tim and Paul examine why hospitals need to consider those connections alongside cameras, displays, and the infrastructure within patient rooms.
The episode also explores how connected sensors and analytics can help care teams recognize when attention is needed. Examples include detecting specific equipment alarms or notifying staff when a patient at risk of falling begins to get out of bed. The guests discuss how patient-specific settings and remote verification could help make alerts more useful and address alarm fatigue.
We’re able to use our analytics that are the at the edge of the sensors to be smart and to provide [insights] for patient care. But these also help the staff be proactive since a nurse can’t be in every room at once.
— Paul Baratta, Segment Development Manager for Healthcare, Axis Communications
Throughout the conversation, the focus remains on how technology fits into care delivery. Clear workflows and input from nurses help hospitals identify where virtual support can ease pressure on staff while still maintaining personal connections with patients.
Whether you're a nursing leader, hospital administrator, clinical informatics professional, IT director, system integrator, or healthcare technology decision-maker, this episode offers practical insights into planning and implementing virtual nursing.
To hear the entire conversation, watch the full episode below.
Interested in staying up to date on the latest conversations from Secure Insights? Subscribe to the Axis Communications YouTube channel to be notified whenever new episodes are released. You can also listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. New episodes are released every other week.