Telenursing is motivated by the increasing aging of the baby boomer generation and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a greater demand for home telemonitoring, with a significant need for telemetry. Well-trained healthcare professionals are essential for providing high-quality health services. Particularly during the pandemic, nurses have become crucial for supporting accessible home healthcare services, while midwives face challenges in responding to the increased needs of pregnant women with limited mobility.
In this context, eHealth and TeleCare @ Home have become essential tools for primary healthcare, requiring digital skills as a necessity. The lack of these skills among healthcare professionals could lead to inadequate service delivery and, consequently, a reduced quality of life for patients and higher healthcare costs.
Nurses and midwives, as primary providers of home healthcare, need digital competence to address the challenges of remote care effectively. The project aims to equip healthcare professionals with digital skills to perform routine tasks through remote telecare. Many professionals currently lack the opportunity to acquire such skills during their basic or continuing education.
Identified gaps in the digital competence of nursing staff regarding TeleCare technologies and tools pose a significant barrier to the seamless delivery of such services, resulting in unsupported telecare. Innovative tools are seen as potential solutions to ease the workload of professionals, consume fewer resources, and improve citizens’ quality of life.
The primary goal of the project is to provide nursing staff with digital skills, enabling them to conduct remote telecare as part of their routine work. The ultimate objective is to empower professionals to implement the entire spectrum of medical record management, teleconsultation, and telemetry. Explicit training in TeleCare is considered a necessity for future healthcare practices rather than an additional competency.
For this project, ENC contributes with its expertise in activities that facilitate the recognition and validation of qualifications for nurses, strengthening their knowledge, skills, and competencies.
