Interprofessional collaboration in telemedicine for long-term care: An exploratory qualitative study

Widespread and sustained adoption of telemedicine in long-term residential care is emerging. Nursing home (NH) nurses play a key role in collaborating with remote physicians to manage residents' medical conditions through videoconferencing. Therefore, understanding of interprofessional collaboration and effective communication between nurses and physicians is critical to ensure quality of care and safety during teleconsultations.

To explore NH nurses' and physicians' experiences of interprofessional collaboration and communication during teleconsultations.

A qualitative descriptive design was adopted. Purposive sampling was conducted to recruit 22 physicians and nurses involved in NH teleconsultations. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted, and data were thematically analyzed.

Three themes were identified: (1) Manner of communication in telemedicine, (2) sociocultural influences in collaborative practice, and (3) role expectations in telemedicine. Both nurses and physicians recognized the importance of building and maintaining trust as physicians heavily depended on nurses for provision of objective information for clinical decision-making. However, practice differences were observed between nurses and physicians during teleconsultations. Sociocultural influences such as power relations and language barriers also affected the nurse-physician relationship and interpersonal communication. Additionally, different performance expectations were identified between nurses and physicians.

Interprofessional collaboration in teleconsultations is challenging because of lack of in-person assessment and dependence on nurses for clinical information. In addition, expectations and communication styles differ among healthcare professionals. This study called for interprofessional telemedicine training with incorporation of shared mental models to improve role clarity and communication. Given the international-dominated healthcare workforce in long-term care, the development of cultural competency could also be considered in telemedicine training to enhance nurse-physician collaborative practice.

Telemedicine is increasingly adopted in long-term care settings, where multidisciplinary healthcare professionals from different health institutions are involved in resident care. Interprofessional collaboration should be incorporated into telehealth education for enhanced clinical practice in this care delivery model.