The Heart of the Matter. About Good Nursing and Telecare

Nurses and ethicists worry that the implementation of care at a distance or telecare will impoverish patient care by taking out ‘the heart’ of the clinical work. This means that telecare is feared to induce the neglect of patients, and to possibly hinder the development of a personal relation between nurse and patient. This study aims to analyse whether these worries are warranted by analysing Dutch care practices using telemonitoring in care for chronic patients in the Netherlands. How do clinical practices of nursing change when telecare devices are introduced and what this means for notions and norms of good nursing? The paper concludes that at this point the practices studied do not warrant the fear of negligence and compromised relations. Quite the contrary; in the practices studied, telecare lead to more frequent and more specialised contacts between nurses and patients. The paper concludes by reflecting on the ethical implications of these changes

Wanted!:virtual coach for people with thorny diseases

Abstract The main objective of this study was to propose a concept for a virtual coach to be used by people who suffer from costly and challenging diseases such as dementia, depression, diabetes and cardiac related issues, and by their caretakers presenting healthcare service providers or family members of the people suffering from the named diseases. Those listed diseases form almost an unbearable burden for individual persons, their next-of-kin, and those providing health services. The construction of the concept was based on earlier knowledge, and guidelines proposed for design science research were applied. The proposed concept is to sketch a virtual coach that utilizes sensor-based data and written diaries, and that helps patients and their caretakers to get accurate and individual information to support everyday life and healthcare