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December 09-10, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain
Nursing Practice 2019 & Neonatology 2019
December 09-10, 2019
Nursing and Nursing Practice Neonatology and Perinatology
7
th
Global Experts Meeting on
4
th
World Congress on
ISSN: 2632-251X | Volume 3
Journal of Nursing Research and Practice
J Nurs Res Pract, Volume 3
The implementation of a synchronous telemedicine platform linking off-site Pediatric
intensivists and on-site fellows in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A feasibility study
Mahmoud Nadar
Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
Objective:
The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing a synchronous telemedicine platform in a pediatric
intensive care unit (STEP-PICU).
Method:
Aprospectivemixed studywas conducted.Two sources of dataweremobilised: a surveywith struc- tured questionnaires
and direct non-intrusive observation. The study site was the PICU of a university hospital. Users’perceptions of six aspects of the
STEP-PICU were studied: telemedicine system quality, data quality, quality of technical support, use of the new system, overall
satisfaction and system benefits.
Results:
During the 6-month experimentation period, use of the telemedicine platform was rather limited and fell short of the
promoter’s expectations.The mean scores for the six user perception dimensions were low, with no differences between the
two groups of users. AMann-Whitney test showed that being an off-site pediatric in- tensivist or on-site fellow did not make a
statistically significant difference in responses on system quality (p = .518), data quality (p = 1.00), quality of technical support
(p = 1.00), system use (p = .556), overall sa- tisfaction (p = .482), or benefits (p = .365). The low use of the STEP-PICU was
attributed to three root causes: human factors, the platform’s functionalities, and technical problems.
Discussion:
The synchronous telemedicine service for PICUwas feasible but would need good pre-im- plementation preparation
to be truly helpful. Its usefulness during the night shift and holiday on-call periods was scored as low by the off-site pediatric
intensivists and the on-site fellows. It would appear that such a service could be more beneficial for communications with other
remote healthcare facilities, where there is a greater need for the expertise of a pediatric critical care intensivist.