Ethical issues that could be of concern for nurses with telehealth provided care
Abstract
For the past few decades, people have become more reliant on various technologies to control their information needs. An increase in the implementation of alien technology to improve clinical care, in conjunction with expanded private and public reimbursement for remote maintenance, shows that health professionals are increasingly accepting these technologies. However, the telehealth delivered care does not fully answer many regulatory and legal questions. This paper aims at discussing ethical issues that could be of concern for nurses with telehealth provided care.
Keywords: telehealth, telenursing, technology, e-health
Introduction
Due to the increasing reliance on personal computers, the internet, and palm computers to control individuals’ information requirements, medical websites thrived, ranging from websites providing a broad spectrum of information on health to those devoted to specific illness entities. Information related to health became one of the most sought data on various websites. Hence more detailed assessment and monitoring tools were made, enhancing innovative methods for monitoring distant health care. As a result, creative strategies for disease control emerged. Technology handling and electronically transmitting patient files to the medical professional for scrutiny saves both providers and patients considerable dollars.
Ethical Issues of Telehealth Nursing
The U.S Constitution has empowered every state to develop laws that protect its citizens. Besides, the state is mandated to formulate rules that govern physicians providing health services for the state citizens. For many years, the United States has been providing state-based medical care licenses, including the authority to practice within the state boundaries where the permit was issued. But, this law prohibits the states from offering control for medical practice in different countries. This law was not an issue in the past decades because of the medical premise; the physician and the patient were often residing in one location. However, there is a need to change this state-based licensure due to catering to the evolution of the technology world and business-oriented medical delivery services, which cannot be confined within the state-laws.
Another ethical issue is whether jurisdiction delivered via telehealth will be retained in the State’s Rights legal provisions with a dilemma whether issues will be resolved by the act, or whether telehealth will be seen as an interstate premise. The U.S Constitution describes interstate belief as providing services and goods across state boundaries and is within the national government’s authority. The federal government intervenes with medical care ethics only if these standards violate a patient’s right (Balestra, 2018, p. 32). An example of the federal government involvement in health ethics is adopting the CLIA (Clinical At the heart of practicing nursing and the nursing profession, the first major ethical issue is whether telehealth nursing services over distance are nursing practice. The most common misconception about telehealth nursing services is that, even though telehealth is very interactive, it does not involve hands, and thus it’s not a practice of nursing. Also, nurses working in call centers are being challenged on whether they are on nursing practice since nursing practice involves using protocols approved for physicians. Some people argue that telehealth delivered care is an assigned clinical practice and not nursing; hence licensure is not a challenge. An important question is whether telenursing care and the telephone are within the area of practicing nursing as mandated by nursing practice acts in the state-laws (Newton et al., 2020). Nevertheless, nursing practice occurs when the nurse uses the skill, knowledge, critical thinking, and judgment obtained through nursing education and authorized via the state nursing practice act. Therefore, telehealth delivered care is indeed nursing practice because the nurse must use the judgment, knowledge, and expertise to provide meticulous care, achieved via education, and mandated by the state’s legal definitions to offer recommendations and decisions about delivered care.Improvement Act) that determines the standards for setting clinical laboratories across the nation. Another way is establishing a language draft that enables consultation in Community Health Centers by medical practitioners legally licensed in states different from the location of the Community Health Center.