Telenursing- monitors the elderly and those with chronic illnesses to keep them from being rue admitted to the hospital.

Telenursing: Monitors the Elderly and those with Chronic Illnesses to keep them from being Rue Admitted to the Hospital
Telenursing refers to a technique that manages, coordinates, and delivers medical care to the elderly and people with chronic illnesses using the telephone technology. The nurses who serve in the telenursing technique give their services to from the home environment or the hospital setting. However, the service is common in the home setting, and research evidence shows that the patients under the care of telenurses do not get frequent admissions to hospitals. The patients are either the elderly, or patients with chronic illnesses. Such categories of patients require frequent monitoring. They also require immediate medical attention from various health personnel. Tele-nursing has assisted the elderly patients and patients with chronic diseases with the management of the symptoms of their diseases. The service has also increased the efficiency of the coordination of nursing care to the patients (Baker, Karabatsos, and Brimble et al. 2009).
The research that Baker, Karabatsos, and Brimble et al. (2009) conducted shows that the nurses who work from the home environment found telenursing more beneficial compared to those who work from the medical centers. The article argues that the residential nurses in the study found telenursing to be an important service that improved their productivity. They easily monitored the symptoms of the patients and coordinated the right treatment for them. Telenursing enabled the nurses to maintain frequent monitoring and treatment of their patients, something that prevented the patients from falling ill frequently. The study concludes that telenursing is an effective strategy for avoiding frequent admission of patients with chronic illnesses and the elderly patients.
Telenursing is a strategy that has evolved to improve the quality of medical care and monitoring of patients with chronic illnesses. Today, telenursing does not just use the telephone technology. Technologies like computers and biosensors have found their way into the modern practice of telenursing. As the technologies that the telenursing service uses evolve and become complex, the care for patients with chronic diseases, and who have received discharge from hospitals, improves. The advanced technologies in telenursing enable the transmission of “physiologic patient data” to nurses at instant rates. Nurses can respond to the data to ensure that the patients receive quality care after their discharge from hospitals. Such care minimizes the possibility of the patients being readmitted with the chronic illnesses, and keeps their conditions stable. Telenursing has also enabled healthcare institutions to provide quality healthcare to chronic-diseases-patients using a few nurses. In addition, patients can easily monitor the progress of their illnesses when they see the physiologic data. They can improve the management of their diseases (Fairchild, Elfrink, and Deickman, 2010).
The application of telenursing technology requires the understanding of the kind of patients that the telenurse will serve using the technology. The users of the technology must also understand their needs, especially the medical needs that arise from their conditions. The kind of contact that the nurse will use in monitoring the patients under telenursing is also important. Visual or video images are more suitable for patients who suffer of psychiatric complications than face-to-face contact. Telenursing can use telecommunication and video phone communication in the monitoring of patients with chronic heart diseases. In both models of communication and patient monitoring, there are similar levels of patient satisfaction. The levels of acceptance of the nurses are also similar (Fairchild, Elfrink, and Deickman, 2010).
A different study, which Bohnenkamp, McDonald and Lopez et al. (2007) conducted, finds that patients under telenursing have a high level of satisfaction. However, the cost of healthcare under the home-based telecare increased by an average of $52 per patient. In every patient’s group, there was an increase in the number of home visits by an average of one visit for every home. The patients under telenursing expressed the belief that under the program, the nurses understood their problems better than if they gave them the care without telenursing. The patients also showed a lot of comfort when the nurses told them their conditions. The participants in the study, which involved the use of telenursing, also believed that the practice increased the accessibility of medical care. The patients indicated that telecare is better than face-to-face visits, which would take a long time. They stated that telecare was better than face-to-face on the measure of immediacy. However, they believed that if the nurses made face-to-face visits to their homes, they would get the best quality services (Bohnenkamp, McDonald, and Lopez et al. 2007).
In summary, telenursing is an effective strategy for monitoring elderly patients and patients with chronic illnesses. When the patients leave hospitals, they still need frequent monitoring and the necessary treatment, which leads to their full recovery. Telenursing enables hospitals to monitor the patients. The nurses can receive physiologic data that they use to monitor the progress of the patients. The patients also gain the understanding of their progress, making their satisfaction high. Patients prefer telenursing because of its immediacy. It also uses fewer nurses than face-to-face (traditional) visits, and it is, therefore, effective for patient monitoring.

References
Baker, J., Karabatsos, G., Brimble, R., Wilson, A., & Cullen, M. (2009). “How Safe is Tele-
Nursing from Home?” Pub med, Vol. 16(3), pp.119-123.
Bohnenkamp, S.K., McDonald, P., Lopez, A.M., & Krupinski, E. (2007). Traditional Versus
Tele-nursing Outpatient Management of Patients With Cancer With New Ostomies. Google Scholar. Retrieved on May 20, 2014 from http://ons.metapress.com/content/f662854712557057/ \
Fairchild, L.S., Elfrink, V., & Deickman, A. (2010). Patient Safety, Tele-nursing, and Tele-
Health. Telemed Journal of Health, Vol. 12 (1), pp.34-56. (CINAHAL).