Being present in a distant room: aspects of teleconsultations with older people in a nursing home.
In a telecare project in Northern Sweden, videophones have been used to facilitate teleconsultations between nurses and elders at a nursing home. The authors designed this study to elucidate qualities in the communication in the professional encounter between nurses and elders assisted by nursing staff in the teleconsultations. They interviewed 2 registered nurses and 5 nursing staff members with long experience of using videophones in the telecare project, out of 20 staff members, and analyzed them using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method. In a comprehensive interpretation, teleconsultations could be understood as glimpses of the experience of being in the other's room with a feeling of providing nursing presence. This was attained when aspects such as familiarity, safety, transparency, and interest were promoted.
Sävenstedt
Stefan
S
Umeå University, Sweden.
Zingmark
Karin
K
Sandman
P-O
PO
D000368:Aged; D003142:Communication; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care; D009735:Nursing Homes; D019114:Remote Consultation; D013548:Sweden