Home telenursing in Kansas: patients' perceptions of uses and benefits

Elderly individuals involved in a home telenursing project were studied. The project nurses provided home health services from 'telenursing cockpits' located in three separate sites in Kansas. A cable television-based interactive video system was used to transmit video pictures at 30 frames/s, with 288 horizontal lines of resolution. During phase 1 of the study, interview data were collected from 22 subjects (4 men, 18 women). During phase 2, the original participants were contacted but only 9 (1 man, 8 women) were still receiving home health services. Contrary to expectations, the technology was not an important issue for the participants. They did not express any particular worry or excitement about it. Nor did they describe difficulties in adapting to its use. Use of telemedicine technology did not appear to have any negative effects on communication. The results suggests that further thought needs to be given to defining clearly the purpose and goals of telemedicine projects.