Roles and resources
Why is this important?
“Telehealth needs a nursing team of its own. I think that would be the best way to use telehealth, to actually have nurses monitoring the alerts and communicating with patients.”
“We needed a co-ordinator to pull it all together basically because it just wasn’t working and people didn’t know what was happening.”
Key steps
Use the service design to identify new roles and resources you may need in order to implement telehealth
Work in partnership with existing frontline staff to identify how the new work and tasks associated with telehealth can be delivered and by who
Establish a dedicated role for co-ordinating or managing the telehealth service
Pen portraits of new telehealth roles
Telehealth nurse
Sue is a registered nurse with prior experience in the community.
Her new role in the NHS involves monitoring patients’ symptoms with telehealth, providing telephone advice and support to patients, and arranging other clinical input when it is required.
Telehealth installer
Mike works for the local council as a telecare installer.
He now installs telehealth too, setting up equipment in patients’ homes and showing them how to use it. Mike also provides technical support to patients over the phone.
Telehealth manager
Michelle is a registered nurse with prior experience of using telehealth.
Her new role involves co-ordinating the service, working with the different stakeholders and telehealth supplier, addressing barriers that emerge in practice, and training and supporting clinicians.
Telehealth champion
Tom is a specialist heart failure nurse working in the community.
He is passionate about telehealth, having used it successfully with patients. Tom has agreed to act as a telehealth champion, sharing his experience of telehealth with colleagues and other services.