Being Present in a Distant Room: Aspects of Teleconsultations with Older People in a Nursing Home

• Published in: Qualitative Health Research
• Main Authors: Sävenstedt, Stefan, Zingmark, Karin, Sandman, P. -O.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2004
• Subjects: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732304267754; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1049732304267754

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.