As the healthcare industry faces ongoing workforce challenges, an increasing number of hospitals and health systems are considering implementing virtual nursing technology. In a 2023 survey, 31% of hospital and health system leaders reported they expect to implement virtual nursing by the end of 2024, an 18% increase from December of 2023.¹

Virtual nursing facilitates the delivery of patient care and services from a remote location, supplementing bedside care and reducing nurses’ workload. The capabilities of virtual nursing give nurse leaders hope that this technology can help alleviate staffing pressures. Virtual nursing provides an opportunity to offload certain responsibilities from nurses working in hands-on care, such as admissions, discharges, medication reconciliation. This can help reduce bedside nurse workload and expand their capacity to deliver direct patient care. The capacity gains from virtual nursing may tempt leaders to increase nurse-to-patient ratios to mitigate rising labor costs and continued staffing pressures.