IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aza/mih000/y2024v9i1p79-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Virtually integrated nursing care: A case study in diffusion of innovations

Author

Listed:
  • Huun, Kathleen

    (School of Nursing, USA)

  • Spalding, Rachel

    (1315 Skipping Stone Drive, USA)

Abstract

Bedside nurses are suffering from nurse fatigue owing to excessive workload and work hours. Nurse fatigue results in missed nursing care, which has a direct impact on patient care and safety. Loss of experienced nurses also affects novice nurses, leaving them without strong mentoring. They may suffer from imposter syndrome, which instils self-doubt and limits their professional development, potentially resulting in burnout and attrition. A case study regarding the leadership of the Chief Nursing Officer as aligned with Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory is presented. There is an initial accumulation of knowledge regarding the innovation, followed by persuasion (through perception of positive attributes to enhance speed of adoption), decision making, actual implementation and confirmation. Use of virtually integrated nursing helped alleviate bedside nurse fatigue by removing overtime hours and reducing workload. The virtually integrated nurses supported the bedside nurses, allowing them additional time in direct patient care, enhancing patient satisfaction and safety. The objective data indicates a decrease in patient fall by over 50 per cent. The integration of virtual nursing reversed the nurse attrition rates. Initial results revealed a 47 per cent reduction in registered nurse turnover. This allowed for retention of experienced nurses, which aids in mentoring novice nurses. The impact of virtually integrated nursing is yet to be completely realised. Based on this case study, the implementation of virtually integrated nursing is possible and beneficial to nursing, patient safety and the bottom line. This innovation had additional positive consequences and led to future considerations regarding continual process improvement and dissemination of knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Huun, Kathleen & Spalding, Rachel, 2024. "Virtually integrated nursing care: A case study in diffusion of innovations," Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 9(1), pages 79-88, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aza:mih000:y:2024:v:9:i:1:p:79-88
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hstalks.com/article/8760/download/
    Download Restriction: Requires a paid subscription for full access.
    File URL: https://hstalks.com/article/8760/
    Download Restriction: Requires a paid subscription for full access.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    diffusion of innovation; nurse retention; patient safety; team-based models; virtual nursing; workflow;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aza:mih000:y:2024:v:9:i:1:p:79-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Henry Stewart Talks (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.