title: The practice of telehealth by nurses: an experience in primary healthcare in Brazil.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In Brazil, in order to train the Family Health Strategy teams, the Health Ministry implemented the Brazil Telehealth Program to provide health support and permanent health education. In Pernambuco, the Telehealth Center Network of Pernambuco (RedeNUTES) offers telehealth services to 80 municipalities, supporting 154 Family Health Strategy teams. The goal of this article is to present a profile of nurses' participation in the telehealth services developed by RedeNUTES.
  
  
  METHODS
  This article is a descriptive study of the actions taken by nurses in tele-education and in the telesupport environment, covering the period from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three-hundred forty-nine Web conferences in tele-education, which included nurses both as lecturers and as members of the audience, were analyzed. The median average number of participants was 50 per course during the 2-year period. The participation in the training courses, among the higher-education professionals, was mainly composed of nurses. In telesupport, nurses participated as teleconsultants, answering questions received by electronic forms and by remote Web conference consultations. The most popular categories found in the requests for second opinion, submitted by nursing professionals, were obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that nurses have participated in telehealth services as members of the audience, as lecturers, and as teleconsultants. We also consider that the active participation of nurses could bring benefits to the quality of the telehealth services provided to the community. These practices could help predict how healthcare will look like in the next few years.
authors.affiliation: Telehealth Center, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. luiz.sanches.ufpe@gmail.com
authors.forename: Luiz M P
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Sanches
authors.forename: Danielle S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Maria Helena B M
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Magdala A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Novaes
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D020375:Education, Distance; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education*; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses'; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*