Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran.
Scand J Caring Sci. 2024 Mar;38(1):35-46. doi: 10.1111/scs.13227. Epub 2023 Nov 27.
Health care providers need a better understanding of virtual care to recognise and use it for service delivery.
To provide a more comprehensive definition of the concept of virtual care.
This study was conducted based on Walker and Avant's concept analysis method. A comprehensive review of the published texts in English from 2012 to 2022 was performed using the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, Ovid, CINAHL and Google Scholar databases.
The main aspects and attributes of virtual care, including the use of any information and communication technology in various formats such as platforms, telephone calls, messages, email consultation, remote monitoring, secure and two-way digital communication between health care providers and patients, the possibility of providing remote care synchronously or asynchronously, more interaction between patients and caregivers, the possibility of transferring information between patients and health care providers and within the teams themselves, symptom management, sending diagnostic results in the form of video visits, and providing follow-up care, are attributes that distinguish virtual care from telehealth, telemedicine and other methods of providing remote healthcare services.
Considering the positive and negative consequences of implementing virtual care, the findings of this study developed a basis for an operational definition of the concept so that providers can understand the meaning of virtual care and consider it when providing virtual care to patients. The findings of this study can be used in many international and national contexts in the health care system and in future studies on interventions to increase the use of virtual care.
医疗保健提供者需要更好地了解虚拟护理，以识别并将其用于服务提供。
提供对虚拟护理概念更全面的定义。
本研究基于 Walker 和 Avant 的概念分析方法进行。使用 PubMed、Web of Science、Scopus、ProQuest、Science Direct、Ovid、CINAHL 和 Google Scholar 数据库，对 2012 年至 2022 年期间发表的英文文本进行了全面审查。
虚拟护理的主要方面和属性，包括使用各种格式的任何信息和通信技术，如平台、电话、消息、电子邮件咨询、远程监测、安全和双向数字通信，医疗保健提供者和患者之间，提供远程护理的同步或异步的可能性，患者和护理人员之间更多的互动，患者和医疗保健提供者之间以及团队内部信息传递的可能性，症状管理，以视频访问形式发送诊断结果，并提供后续护理，这些都是虚拟护理与远程医疗、远程医疗和其他提供远程医疗服务方法区分开来的属性。
考虑到实施虚拟护理的积极和消极后果，本研究的结果为该概念的操作定义奠定了基础，以便提供者在为患者提供虚拟护理时能够理解虚拟护理的含义并考虑使用虚拟护理。本研究的结果可用于医疗保健系统中的许多国际和国家背景，以及未来关于增加虚拟护理使用的干预措施的研究。
