The remote nurses work with bedside staff to monitor patients’ vitals, conduct admissions & educate families. Officials say this will help with staffing challenges.
MOLINE, Ill. — UnityPoint Health is one of the first health care organizations in the country to staff the future generation of nurses: virtual ones.
In 2021, UnityPoint Health started working on the Certified Acute-Care Virtual Registered Nurses program. Once nurses are CAVRN certified, they can work remotely to care for patients.
Virtual nurses can care for several patients at at time by monitoring vital signs, conducting admissions and discharges, watching for slips or falls and summoning in-person doctors or nurses when needed. Virtual nurses also provide education materials to patients and their families at the time of discharge.
This has led to an 8% improvement in patients’ understanding of how to manage their care at home, which helps prevent readmissions, UnityPoint Health tells News 8.
Since introducing its virtual …