Cleveland Clinic has added 17 nurses since February to virtually monitor hospital-at-home patients.
The health system is one of the nation’s largest providers of acute hospital care at home, a treatment model that requires clinicians to be available for video calls 24/7. The nurses collaborate with physicians and pharmacists at a centralized command center.
“I think anybody can do it … but there’s a very steep learning curve,” said Danielle Crow, MSN, RN, nurse manager of Cleveland Clinic’s Hospital Care at Home program, in a Sept. 24 health system podcast. “Nurses who are already skilled in technology [have an advantage]. We work with three screens and bounce around in all kinds of different systems that some nurses aren’t used to.
“It takes four to five weeks of orientation, even for the most experienced nurses. The physical demand isn’t there, but the mental demand is high. Flexibility [is important], as is the ability to prioritize and look at things differently. If you get stuck in how we’ve always done things, it’s difficult to transition into this role.”
Still, nurses have been excited about the care model and learn more about patients by seeing their home environments, Ms. Crow added. The nurses have come from a variety of backgrounds, including med-surg, emergency care, observation and cath lab.
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