Some people call it a “virtual nurse.” Others might describe it as a “remote nurse.”
St. Tammany Health System Director of Telemetry Medicine Mathilde Lyon has a different way of seeing the newest nursing position at the health system’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
“It’s like having a guardian angel,” Lyon said recently. “That’s the best way to look at it. It’s like having an extra set of eyes watching over you, caring for you, while you’re in the hospital.”
Whatever you call it, the latest healthcare innovation at St. Tammany grew out of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals around the world tried to figure out new ways to conduct routine caregiving tasks – monitoring vital signs, answering patient questions, conducting pain assessments, discussing medications and the like – without needlessly exposing nursing staff to the virus.
As luck would have it, while the pandemic was still going full tilt, STHS construction teams were putting the finishing touches on a leading-edge new patient tower on the health system’s main Covington campus. Among other pieces of technology, all of the patient rooms in the new tower came equipped with electronic message boards outfitted with cameras and microphones.
That gave the nursing team an idea: What if they assigned an experienced, veteran nurse to staff an on-site computer station that would allow her to drop in virtually on patients – almost like a Zoom call – and conduct those routine tasks?
“The idea isn’t to replace caregivers at the bedside,” Lyon said. “It’s to enhance that care, helping with work that needs to be done to free up caregivers to focus on providing the type of quality bedside care St. Tammany is known for. These nurses will be able to keep our patients safer. It’s a second check.”
The idea quickly gained steam, and a pilot program was launched in early September on the hospital’s 33-bed Telemetry Medicine unit. Plans are in the works to scale it up and expand it to the Adult ICU in coming months.
So far, the virtual nursing program has been receiving rave reviews from patients and nurses alike.
“It’s going to benefit not only the patient,” STHS Chief Nursing Officer Kerry Milton said, “but also our team.”
Mariah Wallace, the health system’s director of Critical Care, agreed, saying, “This is a great representation of the future of nursing.”