Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., uses mobile devices with audio and video capabilities for its “virtual sitter” program, which allows nurses to monitor multiple patients at once. “They kind of look like a robot that you would see in a cartoon,” Karen Hughart, senior director of nursing informatics at VUMC, says of the devices.

VUMC’s virtual sitter program launched in 2019, when a dramatic increase in patients needing observation — those at risk of falls or other types of harm — coincided with Nashville’s booming economy, making it difficult to hire entry-level patient-care attendants.

“Sometimes, patients just need somebody to redirect them if they start to get out of bed because they’re confused,” Hughart says. “We’re not relying on patients to press their call bell. There’s somebody available to monitor them to determine if the patient needs immediate assistance, and they’re notifying the patient’s bedside nurse directly instead of waiting until the patient has had a bad outcome.”

Virtual sitters, who use 24-inch Dell monitors to observe patients centrally, can even use recorded messages from family members to reorient patients. “Sometimes a voice that they recognize is more effective with redirecting their behaviors,” Hughart adds.

WATCH: How technology is transforming nurse workflows.

Virtual Nursing Supports New Nurses on the Floor

The pandemic placed stressors not only on practicing nurses but also on those in training. “Nursing school students didn’t get the same experience that some of us more seasoned nurses have because their clinical rotations were cut short,” says Becky Fox, Atrium Health’s vice president and chief nursing informatics officer.

Health systems like Atrium and Saint Luke’s assigned experienced virtual nurses to mentor recent graduates. They can walk bedside nurses through procedures, interact with the care team on rounds and even listen in on a patient’s lungs via a remote stethoscope, Fox says.

“Imagine you’re a new graduate, and you’re concerned that your patient is taking a turn for the worse. It helps knowing that you’ve got someone on screen who has your back,” she adds.

Atrium Health has seen call bell volumes go down while patient satisfaction scores have risen, Fox says. It also saw a decrease in the number of rapid response team calls, in which the whole care team rushes to a patient’s bedside amid a crisis, because virtual nurses can spot problems before they escalate.

The organization was already using video capabilities in other areas, such as translators and disease education specialists, to help nurses manage patients’ care. Atrium Health expects the use of video capabilities to develop further.