This scoping review will describe the extent and range of the literature on virtual care technologies in the delivery of nursing care for the purpose of hospitalization avoidance.
Introduction:
There has been a recent and rapid uptake of virtual care technologies in nursing to help reduce the burden on hospitals and to provide care for people in place. The nursing workforce must be supported to use new technologies and adopt new working methods in the delivery of care. There is a need to understand and explore how virtual care technologies can be used by nurses to provide high-quality care through synthesis of the available literature.
Inclusion criteria:
This review will include primary research that examines virtual care technologies in the delivery of nursing care for the purpose of hospitalization avoidance. All care settings (primary care, aged care, etc.) will be examined and all virtual technologies will be considered, including telehealth, remote monitoring, and other digital health technologies.
Methods:
This review will use the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and report against the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRIMSA-ScR). Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, and PsycINFO (via Ovid); CINAHL (via EBSCOhost); and Scopus. Figures, tables, and accompanying narrative synthesis will be used to present the results, in line with the review questions. Studies will be mapped in terms of virtual care technologies used, patient group/condition serviced, the role of nurses in the delivery of care using virtual technologies, and the competencies that nurses require to effectively provide care using virtual technologies.
Details of this review project can be found in Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5u6rj/