Telenursing

Book excerpt: This is the first book to explore this emergent role of the nursing profession. It examines the unique legal, regulatory and professional issues this neoteric mode of nursing practice presents. Telenursing as a subset of telehealth is defined and a review of its history, present status, and future in the U.S. health care system is discussed. Concomitant legal accountability and risk for malpractice liability are examined. Risk management strategies and survival tactics in the event of a lawsuit are presented—particularly the legal significance of, and essential need for, defensive nursing documentation. A brief overview of malpractice law is provided and the essentials of requisite malpractice insurance for the telenurse practitioner are outlined. The book also addresses a number of other professional, regulatory, and licensure issues, particularly the contentious issue of multistate licensing and the various models to facilitate it that are being offered, and rejected, by nursing organizations and associations. The anticipated changes in our health care delivery system that will be engendered by breakthroughs in science and technology are described. The implications of such changes for patients as consumers of health care are analyzed—particularly the privacy and confidentiality of electronic medical records.