Virtual Nursing Pilot in the Inpatient Setting: Qualitative Evaluation

The main beneficiaries of this intervention, bedside nurses, found their virtual counterparts helpful following a few adjustments. Participants reported a perceived reduction in administrative burden, uninterrupted completion of clinical tasks, and they felt their overtime was reduced, which all increased their buy-in for this care model. There are several opportunities for improvement, such as real-time communication, unit-specific virtual nurse training, and flexible staffing for high-volume units. Our findings suggest that virtual nursing can address staffing challenges. Calculating the true return on investment for virtual nursing programs will require comprehensive mixed methods evaluations of such outcomes as care team and patient satisfaction, length of stay, readmission prevention, completion of nursing tasks, and reduction in overtime.