TELEHEALTH IN NURSING PRACTICE: IMPROVING ACCESS, CONTINUITY OF CARE, AND PATIENT OUTCOMES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65327/hsn.v12i2.2492Keywords:
Telehealth, Telenursing, Nursing Practice, Continuity of Care, Chronic Disease Management, Patient OutcomesAbstract
Telehealth has become an increasingly important component of nursing practice, enabling healthcare delivery beyond conventional clinical settings through virtual consultation, remote monitoring, digital communication, and technology-supported follow-up. This review explores the potential of telehealth to enhance access to health services, continuity of care, chronic disease management, patient outcomes, and patient experience, as well as key implementation issues and opportunities for the future. Data shows that the use of Telehealth can decrease geographical barriers, enhance access for those who are rural, mobility impaired, or have a need for post-discharge and transition care, as well as enhance continued nurse–patient communication. Telehealth can help support self-management, medication compliance, patient education, lifestyle change and home monitoring in the management of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. It may also improve patient satisfaction, convenience, engagement, and selected clinical outcomes, although effectiveness varies according to patient characteristics, healthcare setting, intervention design, and technological infrastructure. The problem of digital inequality, lack of digital literacy, weak internet connectivity, privacy and security issues, workload and physical evaluation are all important challenges. Appropriate patient selection, clear clinical protocols, and competent nursing staff are necessary to support safe, sustainable telehealth, along with organization support and equal digital access. Future studies should determine the best, safest and most cost-effective models of telehealth for population-specific groups and assess the long-term consequences of these models on health quality and health equity.
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