Holidays often revolve around food, family and fun. But for a child with an eating disorder, these occasions can be challenging. Shifting routines, unintentional comments about appearance or eating habits, uncomfortable family dynamics, and feelings of being judged or misunderstood can amplify anxiety. And the heightened emphasis on joy and celebration can create pressure to suppress difficult emotions.

Preventing triggers for children with an eating disorder is always the best approach. For those families supporting a child with an eating disorder, during this holiday season here are some strategies that can help reduce anxiety and foster a supportive atmosphere during a potentially overwhelming time:

• Establish consistent routines around meals and activities to help provide stability and support effective coping mechanisms.
• Shift the focus away from food-centered gatherings by emphasizing non-food traditions such as decorating, crafting, or playing games.
• Set boundaries on conversations by steering clear of topics related to weight, appearance or food choices, as these can be triggering.
• Collaborate with your child to create a plan for navigating holiday meals and social gatherings, focusing on setting realistic and manageable goals.
• Encourage self-care by helping your child identify stress management techniques, such as mindfulness, journaling, or taking quiet breaks.
• Detaching from social media posts or conversations about holiday indulgence or dieting can help prevent unhealthy thought patterns and exacerbations during the holidays.

When triggering events do lead to hospitalization, timely care through virtual nursing can provide critical support and monitoring – offering children compassionate guidance during their stay, while equipping families with the tools and education needed to navigate the challenges of the holiday season.

Virtual Care: Enabling More Involved Nursing Support and Ongoing Monitoring

Virtual nursing provides invaluable support to both the child and family. Through ongoing and real-time emotional support, virtual nurses ensure the child feels heard and cared for during this challenging period. Families benefit from education tailored to fostering recovery, including practical advice on effective communication and creating a nurturing environment.

Virtual nursing also ensures continuity of care, acting as a vital bridge between the child and the healthcare team to keep everyone aligned on the recovery plan. Stress reduction tools, such as guided mindfulness exercises and relaxation techniques, further enhance emotional well-being for both the child and their family. By empowering families with knowledge and confidence, virtual nursing equips them to better support their child’s needs during hospitalization and beyond, fostering a smoother transition back to everyday life.

A Path to Hope and Healing

Virtual nursing provides an invaluable layer of support for children with eating disorders, blending prevention with compassionate care during hospitalization. This innovative approach helps families support their children, minimize distress, and foster lasting recovery from eating disorders. Here’s how Virtual Nurses can take

Ensuring Proper Food Intake:
Provide real-time observation during meals to support children and adolescents in consuming appropriate portions.

Behavioral Monitoring and Crisis Prevention:
Ensure early detection of emotional crisis like self-harm, binge eating or purging.

Therapy and Counseling Sessions:
Virtual care facilitates access to regular counseling sessions, providing flexibility and continuity of care.

Parental Guidance and Education:
Provide real-time training, coaching and support to families on how to handle meal-related challenges at home.

This holiday season, let’s embrace the opportunity to foster understanding, provide resources, and ensure no child faces their journey alone.

Virtual Care isn’t just about technology, it’s about fostering connections, comfort, and confidence in the care we provide. Caring for children in a healthcare setting comes with unique challenges. Children have developmental and emotional needs that differ from adults, requiring specialized approaches from nurses and providers. From managing risks like tampering with medical equipment, attempting to leave the hospital, and preventing falls, as well as addressing destructive behaviors and eating disorders, pediatric patients need care tailored just for them.

Nurses need targeted support to effectively address these unique challenges. Virtual Careprovides an essential solution by ensuring continuous monitoring, reducing interference with medical devices, and supporting in the management of behaviors and eating disorders in pediatric patients.

Additional advantages include improved access to care, greater convenience, and flexibility for families. It ensures continuity of care by providing consistent support, while enhancing the patient’s experience. Virtual Nursing also fosters enhanced patient engagement and education, empowering children and their families to actively participate in managing health conditions. Additionally, it is cost-effective, helps integrate multidisciplinary teams for comprehensive care, and opens the door for innovative therapeutic interventions.

In a Labor and Delivery (L&D) unit, Virtual Nursing can play a vital role in supporting the care of mothers undergoing detoxification, where the risk of newborns being dropped may be heightened due to withdrawal symptoms, fatigue, or impaired judgment. Virtual Nurses can assist by providing continuous monitoring, education, and support that reduces the likelihood of such incidents.

Here are some of the detailed use cases where Virtual Care can be utilized:

Meal Monitoring and Support

One of the critical aspects of managing eating disorders is ensuring proper food intake and preventing harmful behaviors like food hiding or purging. Virtual Care can provide real-time observation during meals to support children and adolescents in consuming appropriate portions and discouraging food-related anxiety or avoidance.

Example: A remote care provider can monitor the child during mealtimes through video, offering guidance and emotional support, helping manage anxiety, and preventing behaviors like hiding food or excessive chewing.

Behavioral Monitoring and Crisis Prevention

Children with eating disorders may experience heightened anxiety, stress, or emotional distress, especially around mealtimes or body image concerns. Virtual Care allows remote behavioral monitoring, ensuring early detection of emotional crises or harmful behaviors like self-harm, binge eating, or purging.

Example: A Virtual Care provider can monitor signs of emotional distress, provide immediate counseling, and intervene to prevent harmful actions like purging or over-exercising after meals.

Virtual Group Therapy

Virtual Care can facilitate group therapy sessions where children and adolescents with eating disorders can share their experiences and receive peer support during their hospitalization. This inpatient community aspect is crucial for reducing feelings of isolation and fostering a sense of belonging.

Example: A virtual group therapy session can be organized where patients discuss coping strategies, share their progress, and support one another under the supervision of a healthcare professional.

Continuous Virtual Monitoring of Mother and Baby

Virtual Nurses can monitor the mother and baby in real-time to ensure safety.  If the Virtual Nurse notices signs of drowsiness, confusion, or unsafe handling of the baby, they can immediately alert the bedside team or assist the mother by guiding her through safe handling.They can also provide reminders to mothers about safe positioning, especially when feeding, burping, or cuddling the baby. This can help reinforce the importance of holding the baby securely, particularly during times when the mother might be at higher risk of being drowsy or disoriented.

Example: Virtual Nurses can assess signs of withdrawal symptoms, such as tremors, fatigue, or confusion, that may increase the risk of the mother accidentally dropping her baby. Early detection of these symptoms allows for timely intervention.

Consistent Messaging

Virtual Nurses can ensure that families receive consistent, evidence-based education about their child’s condition, treatment plan, medications, and post-discharge care. This helps prevent misinformation or conflicting advice.

Example: Families may need to hear information multiple times to fully absorb it. Virtual sessions allow for repetition and reinforcement of key points without burdening the bedside team.

Patient-Specific Education

Virtual Nurses can customize educational content to be age-appropriate, using child-friendly language and materials to ensure young patients also understand aspects of their care.

Example: For pediatric patients with chronic illnesses (e.g., asthma, diabetes), virtual nurses can provide ongoing education, offering long-term support to families managing these conditions.

Cultural and Language Accessibility

Virtual Nurses can facilitate multilingual sessions or access to interpreters, ensuring that non-English-speaking families receive accurate and understandable education.

Example: Virtual Nurses can offer culturally tailored education, addressing family beliefs, values, and preferences, which improves trust and engagement in the care process.

Postpartum and Lactation Support

Virtual Nursing enhances postpartum and lactation support by providing immediate, expert guidance at the bedside. This approach ensures timely interventions, reduces delays in care, and allows for tailored education that empowers new mothers during their hospital stay.

Example: A postpartum patient experiencing challenges with breastfeeding connects with a virtual lactation consultant who provides step-by-step guidance on proper latching techniques and answers questions in real time, ensuring the mother feels supported and confident before discharge.

Newborn Observation

Virtual Nursing enhances newborn observation by providing continuous, real-time monitoring to detect subtle changes in vital signs and behavior. This allows for early identification of critical conditions, such as respiratory decompensation, enabling timely intervention and improving outcomes.

Example: A Virtual Nurse monitoring a newborn notices a decline in oxygen saturation and increased respiratory effort. They immediately alert the bedside team, ensuring rapid response and stabilization of the infant’s condition.

NICU

Virtual Nursing strengthens NICU care by offering constant oversight and expert support, ensuring that even subtle changes in a newborn’s condition are quickly identified. This proactive approach enhances safety and enables timely interventions, improving outcomes for fragile infants.

Example: A Virtual Nurse monitoring NICU patients detects early signs of respiratory decompensation, such as subtle shifts in oxygen saturation and breathing patterns. They promptly notify the bedside team, facilitating immediate intervention to stabilize the newborn and prevent further complications.

Family Involvement

Virtual Nursing enhances family involvement by providing consistent communication, education, and support, ensuring families stay informed and actively participate in their child’s care plan. This approach builds trust and empowers families to collaborate with the care team.

Example: A Virtual Nurse connects with parents via two-way video to explain their child’s treatment plan, answer questions, and provide guidance on managing medications and nutrition. This ongoing engagement ensures the family feels supported and confident, even if they cannot be at the bedside 24/7.

Conclusion

In summary, Virtual Care is transforming pediatric healthcare by offering innovative solutions that enhance patient safety, support clinical teams, and foster family involvement. From continuous monitoring and early detection of critical conditions to providing expert consultation in areas like lactation and respiratory care, Virtual Care ensures that pediatric patients receive the best possible care, no matter the circumstances. With the ability to connect families, empower them with knowledge, and provide timely interventions, virtual nursing is paving the way for a future where every child can thrive in a more connected, compassionate, and efficient healthcare environment.

The healthcare industry is evolving rapidly. Healthcare organizations are increasingly embracing virtual care, recognizing its potential to revolutionize the delivery of patient care. While the value of travel nurses remains critical, the rise of virtual nursing represents a significant new shift in the landscape. Virtual nursing offers healthcare organizations enhanced flexibility, operational efficiency, and cost savings, marking a transformative change in how care is provided and managed.

Virtual nursing allows for better resource allocation, by enabling remote monitoring and consultation. Virtual nurses can expand their reach by seeing more patients, more quickly, and with the same or better attention to detail – ensuring that hospitals can maintain adequate patient care without compromising on quality, and reducing the need for travel nurses to step in during periods of high demand.

Virtual nursing provides scalability and flexibility in staffing, allowing healthcare organizations to adjust staffing levels in real-time based on patient needs without the logistical challenges of bringing in traveler nurses. This adaptability was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, where many hospitals successfully scaled their telehealth programs to meet surging patient demands.  In addition, it can reduce burnout and job dissatisfaction and increase retention rates among nursing staff by providing nurses with more flexible work environments and improving job satisfaction.

Utilizing virtual nursing can be more cost-effective than hiring traveler nurses. A study by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) found that telehealth services can save healthcare facilities up to 40% in staffing costs compared to using traveler nurses, driven by greater operational efficiency and the elimination of these additional, high-cost expenses.

Virtual nursing offers several cost advantages over hiring traveler nurses. Some of these include a lower hourly rate, housing assistance, overtime, reduction in onboarding, recruitment and training costs. This flexibility can help fill staffing gaps without the need to bring in more expensive temporary staff.

Furthermore, virtual nursing can enhance patient care by ensuring continuous monitoring and quick intervention when needed. Research published in the Journal of Nursing Administration showed that hospitals using virtual nursing programs experienced fewer patient falls and medication errors, which can reduce the workload and stress on on-site nurses. What better way to increase positive patient outcomes than by having your own experienced nurses help maintain high standards without the need for expensive traveler nurses.

Overall, virtual nursing offers a strategic approach to mitigating staffing shortages and reducing the dependency on traveler nurses, leading to more sustainable and efficient healthcare delivery leading to better outcomes and satisfaction.

June is National Safety Month, a time dedicated to emphasizing the importance of safety in our workplaces. The National Safety Council reports over 4.5 million work-related injuries annually, resulting in more than 5,000 deaths. The financial burden of these injuries is staggering, with costs estimated at $167 billion per year. And healthcare workers are at particular risk – government data shows that they are five times as likely to experience workplace violence as other workers; they accounted for 73% of non-fatal injuries from violence in 2018, the most recent year for which numbers are available, and there are signs that it’s getting worse.

These statistics highlight the urgent need for proactive measures to ensure the well-being of employees. Enhancing awareness and promoting a culture of safety are essential steps in creating safer work environments.

Why should workplace safety matter to you?

Human Impact: Workplace injuries lower productivity, reduce employee morale, and negatively impact staff as well as their families, colleagues, and communities.

Financial Costs: Workplace injuries create significant financial burdens, including the cost of medical expenses, legal fees, and increased absences, all of which ultimately lead to reduced profitability.

Legal and Ethical Responsibility: Organizations have a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment, and an ethical duty to protect their employees.

What proactive measures can you take to reduce workplace injuries?

Technology can play a transformative role. Here are just a few ways technology can make healthcare systems safer.

Continuous, Real-Time Monitoring:

Continuous remote monitoring allows healthcare providers to keep an eye on patients around the clock without being physically present. This feature ensures that any unusual activity or risk event is immediately detected, allowing for prompt intervention. In a busy healthcare setting, this means potential issues are caught early, reducing the risk of accidents, medical emergencies, incidence of violence, and other adverse patient actions.

AI Risk Alerts:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can revolutionizing safety protocols by predicting potential risks before they escalate into serious problems – analyzing data from various sources, identifying patterns and anomalies that could indicate a brewing issue and the system can alert healthcare staff to take preventive action, thus averting potential crises.

Stat Alarms:

Stat alarms ensure that critical alerts are immediately communicated to the relevant medical personnel. This rapid response system is crucial in emergencies where every second counts – decreasing the risk of severe incidents and enhancing the overall safety of both patients and healthcare workers.

Data Analytics:

Predictive analytics models can analyze patient data to identify those at high risk for complications or adverse events; identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies in healthcare processes to improve workflows and reduce error rates; and optimizing the allocation of resources such as staff, equipment, and beds based on predictive models of patient flow and acuity, and more. This ensures that critical resources are available when needed, enhancing staff and patient safety.

By following these strategies, healthcare organizations can make significant strides in enhancing workplace safety and creating a culture that prioritizes the health and well-being of every employee.

NESA Virtual Care Platform^TM: A Beacon of Safety in Healthcare

The NESA Virtual Care Platform creates a safer and more secure environments for both patients and staff. Continuous remote monitoring, AI risk alerts, stat alarms, advanced data analytics and reporting, and other innovative features significantly enhance the ability to prevent and respond to safety concerns. Coupled with a strong culture of safety, these technological advancements can lead to a substantial reduction in workplace injuries and violence, ultimately fostering a safer, more secure environment for all.

Conclusion:

Workplace safety, especially in healthcare, is a critical issue that cannot be overlooked. The alarming statistics on work-related injuries and violence underscore the need for robust safety measures. By leveraging advanced technologies, healthcare organizations can create a safer environment for both employees and patients. These technologies not only enhance safety but also promote a culture of vigilance and proactive intervention. As we observe National Safety Month, let’s commit to implementing these technological solutions to ensure a safer, more secure workplace for all. Embracing these innovations is not just a legal and ethical responsibility but also a crucial step towards improving productivity, morale, and overall well-being in healthcare settings.

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, nurses are the foundation. They play a vital role in delivering care, comfort, and expertise for their patients. Ensuring their satisfaction is therefore essential to delivering better patient experiences. Taking good care of the nurses on the frontlines enables them to take better care of patients. With fewer nurses dealing with the strain of a growing influx of patients, virtual nursing has emerged as a transformative solution.

Virtual nursing transforms patient care because it enables them to leverage technology to make real-time decisions; as a result, they can care for an exponentially greater number of patients far more safely, effectively, quickly and enjoyably. At the same time, it gives patients more immediate access to a nurse (and the comfort they seek), which simultaneously enhances their experience.

Key benefits include:

Anticipate Needs

One of the most notable benefits of virtual nursing lies in its ability to anticipate patient needs, enabling proactive care delivery and reducing uncertainty for both nurses and patients alike. Virtual Nurses can help bridge the gap in providing consistent hourly rounding.  This simple yet impactful task helps in anticipating the needs of patients.  These seamless virtual care workflows, aid in closing the care delivery gap through effective and efficient communication and streamlined approaches to patient care.

Staff Shortage Relief

Beyond significantly reducing the burden on bedside nurses, virtual nursing addresses critical staffing challenges by offering remote support to take on some of the time-intensive responsibilities, such as documentation and education, which often occupy the bedside nurses’ time.  This innovative approach ensures continuity of care during periods of staffing shortages, safeguarding patient safety and well-being and enhancing the overall patient experience.

Administrative Savings

Virtual nursing delivers tangible time savings for bedside nurses by automating routine documentation tasks and streamlining care processes. This newfound efficiency translates into increased time spent on direct patient care, fostering deeper connections, and enhancing the overall patient experience.

From a hospital administration perspective, virtual nursing presents significant advantages. By optimizing resource allocation and enhancing operational efficiency, virtual nursing helps streamline workflows and maximize staff productivity. Additionally, these solutions can result in cost savings by reducing patients’ Length of Stay (LOS), increasing staff and patient satisfaction, increasing throughput and decreasing wait times, to name a few.

Increased Accessibility and Nursing Mentorship

Virtual nursing serves as a valuable resource for nursing professionals at all career stages. For seasoned nurses, it offers an opportunity to remain engaged with patient care while mitigating the physical toll associated with traditional bedside roles. Conversely, newer nurses benefit from the mentorship and support provided by virtual nursing, facilitating a smoother transition into the profession.

New Care Models

Virtual care is the future – it has the power to revolutionize the way in which nurses deliver care and interact with patients. By embracing this transformative care model, healthcare organizations can empower their nursing staff, optimize operational efficiency, and ultimately, elevate the standard of patient care.

Virtual nursing isn’t just a concept—it’s a tangible solution that is reshaping the healthcare landscape. As we continue to embrace technological advancements, let’s recognize the invaluable role of virtual nursing in shaping the future of patient-centered care.

Learn more