A Clinical Standards and Innovations Committee has been created to look at leveraging technology to expand care for remote, community health populations. The Chief Nursing Officer has assigned you to this committee to examine strategies for best practice related to use of telehealth to support rural settings and expand care to all community populations. As the lead RN on the committee you have been tasked with leading the telehealth initiative and have one month to research, analyze, and propose the best evidence based strategy to implement telehealth services through telecommunications-ready tools. You will present your findings to the Chief Nursing Office and CEO of the facility in a succinct one-page summary leveraging your committee’s recommendation. They have asked for the summary to include the following components:
Discuss the defining characteristics of telehealth
Include your own definition of telehealth
How does telehealth impact the nursing role
Examine how telehealth is currently integrated in healthcare
Describe the evidence based practice that supports the use of telehealth in rural and community healthcare settings.
Provide a detailed description of your recommended evidence based strategy to implement telehealth
Provide rationale supporting your strategy
Summary to include current evidence from the literature.