Nursing Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Telenursing

1 Snježana Čukljek

1 Biljana Kurtović

1 Ana Marija Hošnjak

1 Sanja Ledinski

1 Martina Smrekar

1 Janko Babić

1 University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia Article

https://doi.org/10.24141/2/8/1/1

Author for correspondence:

Snježana Čukljek

University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia E-mail: snjezana.cukljek@zvu.hr

Keywords: telenursing, attitudes, students

Abstract

Introduction. Telenursing, a subset of telehealth, is the use of information technology and telecommu- nications to provide remote nursing care. Telemedi- cine is used for the purpose of diagnosis, treatment, symptom management and monitoring of the pa- tient’s condition. Telenursing also enables counseling and patient education.

Aim. To determine the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students towards telenursing.

Methods. The cross-sectional study was conducted involving nursing students from University of Ap- plied Health Sciences Zagreb during June 2023. A link to web-based survey was sent to students, and 140 students completed it. The survey used in the research included demographic data, data related to telemedicine and telenursing education, and 16 statements related to telenursing.

Results. Most participants didn’t listen to lectures on telenursing (66.4%) or telemedicine (50.7%) during their studies. More than 89% of participants believe that education on the application of telen- ursing would be useful for future nursing bachelors, and more than 83% of participants believe that the knowledge of healthcare workers and patients can influence the use of telemedicine and telenursing in patient care. The majority of participants (N=91; 65%) believe that a video conference call cannot re- place a live visit to a patient, but they also believe that telenursing can ensure greater availability of care for patients (N=82; 58.6%). The majority of par- ticipants (N=72; 51.5%) believe that telenursing can be applied in the care of almost all groups of patients.

Conclusions. Students have mostly positive attitudes regarding the possibility of using telenursing, but they are undecided regarding the advantages of telenurs- ing. A lack of knowledge and wrong beliefs related to the beginning of the application of telenursing, advan- tages and possibilities of using telenursing in health practice were observed. Including more content re- lated to telenursing in student education can improve students’ knowledge and attitudes.

Introduction

Nurses face numerous challenges in their daily prac- tice, some of which include the aging of the popu- lation, the increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases, the lack of nurses, changes related to technological development, digitalization and ways of providing healthcare. Telehealth, telemedi- cine and telenursing have been used for decades in the provision of healthcare in order to ensure acces- sible, safe and quality care. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the use of telemedicine and telenursing services, as well as a change in attitudes towards tel- emedicine and telenursing.

Telemedicine is defined as the delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and com- munication technologies for the exchange of valid in- formation for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuous education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individu- als and their communities (1). Telenursing, a subset of telehealth, is the use of information technology and telecommunications to provide remote nursing care. The American Nurses Association has defined telenursing as the use of “technology to deliver nursing care and conduct nursing practices” (2). Tel- emedicine is used for the purpose of diagnosis, treat- ment, symptom management and monitoring of the patient’s condition (3, 4). Telenursing also enables counseling and patient education.

The first documented evidence of telenursing oc- curred in 1974, when Mary Quinn, RN, an employee

of Boston Hospital’s telemedicine center, provided remote nursing care to patients who were at Logan Airport (5). The beginnings of telemedicine in Croatia were connected with the transmission of ECG signals over telephone lines in the 1970s and 1980s. The application was limited due to the development of the telecommunications infrastructure, the procure- ment of equipment and the development of the Internet (6). With the development of technology, the availability of computers, tablets, smartphones and the development of the Internet, as well as the education of healthcare workers, the possibilities of using telemedicine and telenursing have changed significantly. According to the International Telecom- munication Union Statistics, 66% of the world’s pop- ulation is using the Internet in 2022 (7).

Healthcare professionals provide several types of tel- ehealth services: live video conferencing, asynchro- nous or store-and-forward technology, remote patient monitoring, and mHealth. When applying telenursing, a nurse can use various communication technologies, including telephone, fax, computer, tablet or other form of modern technology which enables captur- ing, storing, analyzing and dissemination data such as text, photos and videos using telecommunication (8, 9). Nurses can use applications such as WhatsApp, Facetime, SMS, e-mail, smartphone applications, etc.

(3). The patient’s condition can be monitored using ap- plications installed on the patient’s smartphone; the applications can also be used for the purpose of edu- cating patients and family members.

Telenursing is being considered as an approach to meeting the needs for patient care. In telenursing, the nurse must follow the nursing process when assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating care. The only difference is that the care is provided remotely, rather than in person.

Although telemedicine and telenursing have been applied for a number of years, especially for the pur- pose of providing care to patients living in rural areas and remote locations and for the purpose of moni- toring the patient’s condition, a significant increase in telemedicine and telenursing services occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic. The nurses who had not participated in telenursing interventions until then, as well as the patients who indicated that they were encountering telemedicine and telenursing in- terventions for the first time, were involved in the provision of services. In the United States, before the pandemic, 66% of patients indicated they would use

telemedicine services, and only 8% did. During the pandemic, there was a 638% increase in the use of telemedicine services in New York in 2020 (10), in a study by Cruoch and colleagues, 73% of participants stated that the COVID-19 pandemic made them more open to using telehealth (11).

Telemedicine services enable better access to health and nursing care, ensure continuity of care, save time and expenses, provide greater self-care possi- bilities, increase the participation of patients and, in the time of pandemic, reduced the risk of transition of infection (4, 12-17). Telenursing/telehealth with

ganization of providing health and nursing care, but it is not known what knowledge and attitudes the students have adopted.

According to our knowledge and the available pub- lished papers, knowledge and attitudes of nursing students in the Republic of Croatia towards telenurs- ing have not been examined so far, therefore, the aim of our research was to determine knowledge and at- titudes of nursing students towards telenursing.

telemonitoring is effective in decreasing the number           of outpatient and emergency room visits, shortening

hospital stays, improving health-related quality of life, and decreasing the cost of healthcare (18).

The effectiveness of telenursing services was achieved when providing care for chronically ill pa- tients (17), oncology patients (18, 19), patients un- dergoing surgery (12) in home care (3), palliative care

(20) and in many other cases. When caring for the elderly or people suffering from multiple chronic dis- eases, the support provided through telenursing en- ables patients to receive service in their own home without organizing a travel to a healthcare facility, which can be demanding and expensive.

Telemedicine interventions cannot always be applied. They are not suitable when a physical examination is required, when a diagnosis has not been established, and when the patient wants to visit in-a-person (14, 16). Also, telemedicine is not recommended for initial consult because it is hard to build a relation- ship between a physician or nurse and the patient. Technological difficulties such as the unavailability of technology which enables video calls, poor Inter- net coverage, lack of knowledge and resistance to technology can be a barrier to providing telenursing interventions. When it comes to healthcare workers, the main obstacle to the provision of telenursing in- terventions is the lack of knowledge and skills (13).

To provide telemedicine and telenursing interven- tions, health professionals need specific knowledge related to the use of technology, the implementation of telenursing visits, and the protection of patient privacy. Telenursing education has a significant im- pact on their knowledge, attitudes and awareness of future work (21, 22).

During their studies, students listen to classes relat- ed to information technology in nursing and the or-

Methods

Study design and participants

A cross-sectional study was conducted involving full-time nursing students from University of Applied Health Sciences Zagreb during June 2023. A link to web-based survey (Google Forms) was sent to stu- dents by e-mail with a request to fill out the survey. The survey was addressed to 321 students of the first, second and third year of nursing studies, and 140 students (43.61%) completed it.

Participation in the survey was voluntary, and filling out the survey implied consent to participate in the survey. The students were sent a reminder to com- plete the survey, and the students who didn’t want to, didn’t have to complete the survey. It took 5 min- utes to complete the survey.

Instrument

For the purposes of the research, a survey was cre- ated. It included demographic data (age, gender, year of study), data related to telemedicine and telenursing education, and 16 statements related to telenursing. The statements were prepared on the basis of the lit- erature related to telenursing and a survey which was previously used to assess the attitudes of nursing stu- dents and nurses towards telenursing (22).

When it comes to statements about telenursing, the participants indicated on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 5 the extent to which they agree with a particular statement, where 1 indicates “strongly disagree” and 5 “strongly agree”.

Ethics

The ethics committee of the educational institution approved the implementation of the research (Adm No:602-03/23-18/390; Ref. No:251-379-10-23-02).

The students were informed of the purpose of the re- search, filling out the survey implied the consent to par- ticipate in the research. The principles of the Declara- tion of Helsinki were applied in conducting the research.

Statistics

The data were entered in an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed in SPSS 20.0 software (IBM Corp., NY, USA) for statistical analysis. The normality of the distribu- tion of all variables was tested using the Kolmogo- rov-Smirnov test for normality. It was found that all variables significantly deviate from normal distribu- tion. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the data, and p<0.05 was considered significant.

Results

A total of 140 full-time nursing students participated in the research. Most of the participants were second year students 40.7% (N=57) and most of them were women 90% (N=126). The age ranged from 29 to 46 years, and the average age was M= 22.4 (SD=3.97).

Most participants stated that they did not listen to lectures on telenursing (66.4%) or telemedicine (50.7%) during their studies.

More than 89% of participants (N=111) believe that education on the application of telenursing would be useful for future nursing bachelors, and more than 83% of participants believe that the knowledge of healthcare workers and patients can influence the use of telemedicine and telenursing in patient care. Furthermore, more than three quarters of partici- pants (N=107, 76.4%) believe that family members can help when using telemedicine services.

Only 7.8% of participants (N=11) do not agree that the beginning of telenursing is related to the pan- demic of the disease COVID-19, while the majority of participants agree with that statement (N=69, 49.3%), and a large part of participants are undecid- ed (N=60, 42.9%).

The majority of participants (N=91, 65%) believe that a video conference call cannot replace a live visit to a patient, but they also believe that telenursing can ensure greater availability of care for patients (N=82, 58.6%). The majority of participants are undecided regarding the claims that telenursing could reduce the connection between nurses and patients (N=63, 45%), increase the costs of care (N=75, 51.4%), in- crease the efficiency of clinical staff (N=71, 50.7%) and facilitate direct contact of clinical staff with pa- tients (N=60, 42.9%).

The majority of participants (N=72; 51.5%) believe that telenursing can be applied in the care of almost all groups of patients, as well as in nursing care in the community (N=88, 62.9%), in patients with dia- betes (N=97, 69.3%), during long-term care for pa- tients (N=79, 56.4%), but only 44.2% of participants

nursing care. 3.66 4 3 1.14

in the monitoring of chronically ill 3.43 3 3 0.89

(N=61) agree with the statement that telenursing can be used in the care of oncology patients. The ma- jority of participants (58.6%, N=82) are undecided regarding the statement that mobile applications are used in the monitoring of chronically ill patients, while only a third of participants agree with this statement (N=50, 35.7%).

The highest level of agreement among participants was documented on the statements “The knowledge of healthcare workers and patients can influence the application of telemedicine and telenursing in patient care” (M=4.25; SD=0.93) and “Education on the application of telenursing in patient care would be useful for nurses” (M=4.20; SD=1.08), while the lowest degree of agreement was documented on the statement “A video conference call can replace a ‘live’ visit to the patient” (M=2 .11; SD=1.18) and “Telen- ursing can increase the cost of patient care” (M=2.86; SD=0.97).

The students who listen about telemedicine in lec- tures have a statistically significantly higher level of agreement with the statements “The knowledge of healthcare workers and patients can influence the application of telemedicine and telenursing in patient care” (M-W=1928.0; p<0.05), “Family mem- bers can help when using telemedicine services” (M-W=1928.0; p<0.05), “Telenursing can decrease the connection between nurses and patients” (M- W=1834.5; p<0.05), “The beginning of the applica-

tion of telenursing is related to the pandemic of the COVID-19 disease” (M-W=1974.0; p<0.05), and “Tel-

enursing can ensure greater availability of patient care” (M-W=1886.5; p<0.05) (Table 4).

Students who listened about telenursing in lectures have a statistically significantly higher level of agree- ment with the statements “Family members can help when using telemedicine services” (M-W=1722.5; p<0.05), “A video conference call can replace a live visit to the patient” (M-W=1755.5; p<0.05), “Telenursing can be used in oncology nursing” (M- W=1721.0; p<0.05), and “Telenursing can ensure greater availability of patient care” (M-W=1584.5; p<0.05) (Table 5).

Considering the year of study, there is a statistically significant difference in the level of agreement with the statement “Telenursing can be applied in the care of almost all groups of patients” (K-W=9.095; p<0.05), with the highest level of agreement ex- pressed by students of the second year of nursing studies. To determine the statistically significant dif- ference in the mentioned variable between years of nursing studies, we conducted three Mann-Whitney U tests. The results indicated a statistically signifi- cant difference between the 1st and 2nd study years (M-W=1825,0; p<0.05), as well as between the 1st and 3rd years (M-W=660.5; p<0.05). We also found statistically significant difference in the statement “The beginning of the application of telenursing is

related to the pandemic of the COVID-19 disease” (K- W=6.510; p<0.05), where the highest level of agree- ment was expressed by students of the first year of nursing studies (Table 6). To determine between which years of study there is the statistically signifi- cant difference, we also conducted three Mann-Whit- ney U tests. The results indicated a statistically sig- nificant difference between the 1st and 2nd study years (M-W=1045,0; p<0.05)

Discussion

The aim of the research was to determine knowledge and attitudes of nursing students towards telenurs- ing. Students have mostly positive attitudes regard- ing the possibility of using telenursing, but they are undecided regarding the advantages of telenursing. A lack of knowledge and wrong beliefs related to the beginning of the application of telenursing, advan- tages and possibilities of using telenursing in health- care were observed.

Telenursing has been used in the provision of nurs- ing care for more than 40 years, and the increase in use was stimulated by the pandemic of the COVID-19 disease. The majority of students state that they have not listened to lectures on telemedicine and telenursing. Furthermore, the majority believe that education on the application of telenursing would be useful and that the knowledge of healthcare work- ers affects the application of telenursing and tele- medicine in patient care. In the research by Poredda et al. (21) and Glinkowski et al. (22), the participants stated that they believe that education of nursing students about telenursing during undergraduate studies is necessary.

The education of healthcare workers should be planned in order to possess the necessary knowledge and skills to provide safe, effective, and personalized care. The required competencies regarding telenurs- ing can be classified into eight major categories: clin- ical knowledge, critical thinking skills, technological skills, clinical skills, communication skills, implemen- tation skills, professionalism and professional ethics, and evidence-based practice (23).

The majority of participants state that the use of tel- enursing is related to the emergence of the COVID- 19 pandemic. During their studies, students listen to lectures on telemedicine and the use of certain monitoring systems and applications, but consider- ing the students’ answers, it is necessary to expand the content and introduce students to telemedicine, telenursing and applications used for remote moni- toring of patients’ conditions.

The majority of participants are undecided regarding the statements that telenursing could increase the efficiency of clinical staff and facilitate direct contact of clinical staff with patients, whereby our results differ from the results of the research of Glikowski et al. (22). In the research of Glikowski and colleagues, 90% of participants presented opinion that telenurs- ing could increase the efficiency of clinical staff (22). Also, the majority of participants believe that a video conference call cannot replace a live visit to a patient, which is not true, because video conference calls are used for the purpose of permanent monitoring of the patient’s condition, control checkups, and in that way they can replace the visit of a healthcare worker to the patient, i.e. the patient does not need to go to a health institution for checkup (14, 16).

The majority of participants believe that telenursing can be applied in the care of almost all groups of par- ticipants, and in nursing care in the community, for those suffering from diabetes, during long-term care for patients. The majority of participants in previous- ly conducted research also believe that telenursing can be applied to all groups of patients (15, 21).

Less than one half of the participants agree with the statement that telenursing can be applied in the care of oncology patients, but students who stated that they listened about telenursing in lectures have a statistically significantly higher level of agreement with the statement that telenursing can be applied to oncology patients, which is today a common prac- tice (18, 19).

Despite the fact that a number of mobile applications are used to monitor patients suffering from chronic diseases, especially those suffering from diabetes, the majority of participants are undecided about the statement that mobile applications are used to moni- tor chronically ill patients, while only a third of par- ticipants agree with this statement.

The students from all three years of nursing stud- ies participated in our research, and the research was

conducted at the end of the academic year, so that students of the first year of study also attended lec- tures on information technology in nursing and they also listened lectures on nursing care and attended clinical practice. Considering the year of study, a sta- tistically significant difference was observed in the level of agreement with the statement “Telenursing

technology and connect the application of technol- ogy with telemedicine. Also, in practical classes, the student should be introduced to and involved in the application of telenursing interventions.

can be applied in the care of almost all groups of pa-           tients”, where the highest level of agreement was

expressed by students of the second year of nursing studies, and with the statement “The beginning of the application of telenursing is related to the pan- demic of the COVID-19 disease”, where the highest level of agreement was expressed by students of the first year of nursing studies, but unfortunately this is not correct. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the use of information and communica- tion technology in all activities of human function- ing, especially in education and medicine. Due to the significant increase in use, students may have the impression that due to specific circumstances, the application of telemedicine and telenursing began then.

The students who heard about telenursing in lec- tures have a statistically significantly higher level of agreement with the statements “Family mem- bers can help when using telemedicine services”, “A video conference call can replace a ‘live’ visit to the patient”, “Telenursing can be used in oncology nurs- ing” and “Telenursing can ensure greater availability of patient care”, which indicates more positive atti- tudes towards telenursing. We can assume that more positive attitudes are related to previous education and that with targeted education, students would ac- quire the necessary knowledge and skills, and have more positive attitudes towards telenursing.

The application of telenursing among working nurs- es is influenced by numerous factors such as previ- ous experiences, the use of similar technology and social networks, digital education, and computer self- efficacy (8, 13). The students are aware of the need to acquire knowledge about telenursing, and 79.3% of them state that the education would be useful for nurses. The content related to telenursing should be included to a greater extent in the education of nurs- ing students, both in the course related to informa- tion technology in nursing care and in other courses in the field of nursing care and healthcare organiza- tion. When presenting the content, it is necessary to additionally emphasize the possibilities of applied

Limitations

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the results of the participants at the time of the rese- arch. The research was conducted at one university, and therefore it is not possible to generalize the re- sults of the research to all nursing students, but the obtained results can be used for comparation with the results of future research. Although a conveni- ence sample was used, the value of the research is the participation of students of all 3 study years in the research.

Conclusion

The students have mostly positive attitudes regard- ing the possibility of using telenursing, but they are undecided regarding the advantages of telenursing. A lack of knowledge and wrong beliefs related to the beginning of the application of telenursing, advan- tages and possibilities of using telenursing in health practice were observed.

It is necessary to incorporate content related to tel- emedicine and telenursing into the study program so that students are prepared to provide telemedicine/ telenursing services. Education and insight into ap- plication possibilities can contribute to more positive attitudes towards telenursing.

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ZNANJA I STAVOVI STUDENATA SESTRINSTVA O TELESESTRINSTVU

Sažetak

Uvod. Telesestrinstvo, podskup telemedicine, jest korištenje informacijskom tehnologijom i telekomu- nikacijama za pružanje sestrinske skrbi na daljinu. Telemedicina se primjenjuje u svrhu dijagnostike, liječenja, upravljanja simptomima i praćenja stanja pacijenta, telesestrinstvo također omogućuje savje- tovanje i edukaciju pacijenata.

Cilj. Utvrditi znanje i stavove studenata sestrinstva o telesestrinstvu.

Metode. Presječno istraživanje provedeno je na studentima sestrinstva Zdravstvenog veleučilišta u Zagrebu tijekom lipnja 2023. Studentima je posla- na poveznica na web-upitnik te ga je ispunilo 140 studenata. Upitnik koji je upotrijebljen u istraživanju uključivao je demografske podatke, podatke poveza- ne s predavanjima o telemedicini i telesestrinstvu te 16 tvrdnji povezanih s telesestrinstvom.

Rezultati. Većina sudionika tijekom studija nije slušala predavanja o telesestrinstvu (66,4 %) ili te- lemedicini (50,7 %). Više od 89 % sudionika smatra da bi edukacija o primjeni telesestrinstva bila korisna budućim prvostupnicima sestrinstva, a više od 83 % sudionika smatra da znanje zdravstvenih djelatnika i pacijenata može utjecati na primjenu telemedicine i telesestrinstva u skrbi za pacijente. Većina sudioni- ka (N=91; 65 %) smatra da videokonferencijski poziv ne može zamijeniti posjet pacijentu uživo, ali također vjeruju da telesestrinstvo može osigurati veću do- stupnost skrbi za pacijente (N=82; 58,6 %). Većina

sudionika (N=72; 51,5 %) smatra da se telesestrin- stvo može primijeniti u skrbi za gotovo sve skupine pacijenata.

Zaključci. Studenti imaju uglavnom pozitivne sta- vove o mogućnosti primjene telesestrinstva, ali su neodlučni kad je riječ o prednostima telesestrinstva. Uočen je nedostatak znanja i pogrešna uvjerenja po- vezana s početkom primjene telesestrinstva te pred- nostima i mogućnostima primjene telesestrinstva u zdravstvenoj praksi. Uključivanje više sadržaja pove- zanih s telesestrinstvom u edukaciju studenata može unaprijediti znanja i stavove studenata.

Ključne riječi: telesestrinstvo, stavovi, studenti