Telehealth readiness and its influencing factors among Chinese clinical nurses: A cross-sectional study

This study aimed to assess telehealth readiness among clinical nurses in China and explore the factors that affect their telehealth readiness and the relationships of telehealth readiness and telehealth practice-related variables.

Telehealth is a new service model that uses information and communication technology to provide professional health care services for resource-poor areas. With the global spread of COVID-19, nurses urgently need to adapt and apply telehealth technology to replace conventional face-to-face treatment. However, nurse-led telehealth services in China are currently only in the pilot phase and the readiness of clinical nurses needs to be assessed to facilitate successful telehealth implementation.

A cross-sectional, multicentre study was undertaken with the questionnaire survey method.

Data were collected in October-December 2020 used online questionnaires. A convenience sample of 3386 nurses from 19 hospitals in China completed the Chinese version of Telehealth Readiness Assessment Tools.

The mean score of the telehealth readiness was in the category between 61 and 80 points (mean 61.23, SD 11.61). The percentages of nurses meeting the following levels of telehealth readiness were as follows: low (49.9%), moderate (42.0%) and high (8.1%). Significantly higher domain scores were recorded for nurses in the unmarried, head of responsible nursing group. Moreover, there were positive correlations between telehealth readiness level and service experience, service willingness, mode cognition, manpower allocation and policy guidance.

There are still many factors hindering the successful implementation of telehealth. Nursing educators should formulate telehealth education curriculum and service standards to improve the telehealth readiness of nurses.