Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

Initial post

A healthcare technology trend that has been observed to be on the rise is telemedicine. During the COVID pandemic, the use of telemedicine went from 0.1% to 43.5% (Forbes, 2022). At my current facility telehealth is used quite often with neurology. When a patient is completing a workup for a stroke, time is of the essence. With quick access to a neurologist with telehealth a patient who is suspected of a stroke can receive a neuro examination quickly along with head CT and blood work to determine what interventions are to be implemented. Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

Potential Challenges or Risks

A potential challenge for using telemedicine when completing a stroke assessment is the strength aspect of the assessment. Arguments have been made against telemedicine because it cannot fully fulfill a standard clinical evaluation (Busti, et. al. 2021). When completing a stroke assessment, the patient can be asked to squeeze the provider’s hands, pull the provider towards them, or push the provider away. These are only a few of the strength assessment components that can be used during a full neuro examination. The neurologist using telemedicine to complete their assessment would have to rely on the bedside nurse or another provider’s judgment of the patient’s strength.

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Potential Benefits and Risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care

Due to a lack of neurologist availability, this could require patients to have to travel long distances or not be able to access a neurologist within a timely manner. With the use of telemedicine, there is no delay in care for the patients and the neurologist can communicate with other providers to exchange data and discuss the next steps for treatment of the patient (Patel, et. al. 2019).  As mentioned before risk faced with using telemedicine for neurological assessments cannot fully fulfill a standard clinical evaluation. Assessment components such as loss of strength, one-sided weakness, and new vision loss are easier to detect during an in-person examination (Hussona et. al, 2020). If components during a neuro examination are misinterpreted this can lead to giving or withholding of alteplase. Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

Healthcare Technology to Impacting Nursing Practice and Improve Patient Care

Some of the top examples of nursing technology found to positively impact nursing were telehealth, electronic health records, point-of-care technology, smart beds, and automatic IV pumps. Within my work facility, point-of-care technology that is utilized throughout the day is mobile computers. Mobile computers have become an essential tool in nursing. Mobile computers not only reduce the amount of medication errors with scanning but also allow the nurses to access the patient’s chart without having to leave the room. Having access to the patient’s chart in the room allows the nurse to be able to keep the patient informed, up-to-date, and to go over test results that they may not have understood with the doctor. Being able to quickly review and reference a patient’s chart to answer question will help improve a patient’s satisfaction and make them feel involved in their care.

References

Busti, C., Gamboni, A., Calabro, G., Zampolini, M., Zedde, M., Caso, V., & Corea, F. (2021, September 14). Telestroke: Barriers to the Transition. Frontiers in Neurology. 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.689191Links to an external site.

Forbes. (2022, January 10). The Five Biggest Healthcare Tech Trends in 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/01/10/the-five-biggest-healthcare-tech-trends-in-2022/?sh=3916285654d0Links to an external site.

Hussona, M. A., Maher, M., Chan, D., Micieli, J. A., Jain, J. D., Khosravani, H., Izenberg, A., Kassardjian, C. D., & Mitchell, S. B. (2020, May 21). The Virtual Neurologic Exam: Instructional Videos and Guidance for the COVID-19 Era. The Canadian journal of neurological sciences. 47(5). https://doi.org/10.1017/cjn.2020.96Links to an external site.

Patel, U., Malik, P., DeMasi, M., Lunagariya, A., & Jani, V. B. (2019, April). Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology: A Review. Cureus, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4410Links to an external site. Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

Hi, I concur that telemedicine has become more popular, particularly in the period following the COVID-19 outbreak. The fact that Forbes reported in 2022 that its utilization had increased significantly from 0.1% to 43.5% illustrates the expanding significance of this healthcare technology. In neurology, when time is of the essence, telemedicine has shown to be especially helpful. For example, having rapid access to a neurologist can significantly improve outcomes in stroke examinations (Aquino et al., 2022). As you correctly noted, there are difficulties with using telehealth to complete stroke examinations. The strength component is one crucial element of the exam that could be jeopardized in a virtual environment. Subjectivity and possible errors are introduced when the patient’s strength assessment depends on the bedside nurse or another healthcare professional’s opinion (Olszewski et al., 2022). Although telemedicine is convenient and accessible, it is important to recognize the limitations of its ability to replicate a typical clinical evaluation. Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

It is enlightening to hear about the possible advantages and disadvantages of data security, law, and patient care. One legitimate problem that telemedicine effectively solves is the shortage of neurologists, which forces patients to travel great distances for care (Olszewski et al., 2022). Patients are guaranteed prompt care when they have unimpeded access to a neurologist, and cooperation amongst healthcare providers in deciding on the best course of action for treatment is improved by the capacity to interact and share information. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to express caution regarding telemedicine’s limited capacity to do a comprehensive clinical evaluation, especially when identifying subtleties like unilateral weakness or sudden visual loss. Inaccurate decisions about interventions, such as giving or not giving alteplase, may result from misinterpreting evaluation components during a neuro examination (Aquino et al., 2022). It is imperative to contemplate alternate approaches to tackle these issues, possibly by including supplementary technologies or processes to augment the precision of the virtual evaluation.

In conclusion, even if telemedicine has many benefits, it is imperative to overcome its shortcomings when it comes to accurately reproducing thorough clinical assessments. It will be crucial to look at improvements and make sure that patient care is provided holistically. As previously mentioned, the beneficial effects of various healthcare technologies on nursing practices signify continuous advancements in patient care. Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay

References

Aquino, E. R. D. S., & Suffert, S. C. I. (2022). Telemedicine in neurology: advances and possibilities. Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria, 80(5 Suppl 1), 336–341. https://doi.org/10.1590/0004-282X-ANP-2022-S127

Olszewski, C., Thomson, S., Pring, K., Cox, S., Merrill, R., Fishman, E., Ambrosini, A., Soltany, K. A., Bognet, G., Strauss, L., Graham, R., Guzik, A., & Strowd, R. E. (2022). A comparison of telemedicine and in-person neurology visits: what are the factors that patients consider when selecting future visit type?. Journal of neurology, 269(9), 5022–5037. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11149-0 Multidisciplinary Approach and Outcomes of Tele-neurology Essay