How safe is telenursing from home?

Summary 

Objective

To compare the work of telenurses working from home with that of their colleagues working in a health call centre.

Design

A retrospective review of existing clinical and other data.

Setting

NURSE-ON-CALL, the telephone triage and advice line operated for the Department of Human Services, Victoria by McKesson Asia Pacific.

Subjects

Nurses employed by McKesson Asia Pacific, Victoria, Australia working in their call centre and from home.

Main outcome measures

Comparison between nurses working from home with those working in the centre: demographics and dispositions of callers, management of mystery callers, frequency of risk incidents, productivity, and satisfaction.

Results

Callers sought triage for the same range of symptoms and were triaged to similar dispositions; mystery callers were managed similarly; there were a similar number of risk incidents. Nurses working from home were more productive, took fewer days sick leave and had a lower attrition rate. Nurses working from home identified more flexible hours and less travel as advantages. No disadvantages were identified.

Conclusions

Nurses who worked from home were provided with adequate education for their role, full technological facilities, decision support software, ready access to supervision and continuing education. They managed a similar range of cases as nurses working in a health call centre, did so as safely, were more productive and expressed high levels of satisfaction.

Keywords: Telework, Telenursing, Telephone triage, Health call centre