The recently updated expert consensus statement on tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU) nursing, AACN TeleICU Nursing Practice, conveys the essential elements for implementing, evaluating, and improving tele-ICU nursing practice. AACN TeleICU Nursing Practice includes revised practice definitions, a refined practice model, and vignettes that demonstrate the impact of tele-ICU.Practice definitions have been updated and expanded to reflect the current state of tele-ICU nursing practice, which reaches 18% of all ICU patients. In addition, this updated document more clearly describes the roles of the tele-ICU nurse, the nurse leader, and the health care organization. The individual responsibilities of these roles are no longer combined. Revised recommendations (previously labeled practice guidelines) are presented by role, with each role individually defined and responsibilities described. The focus of the revised recommendations is on the application of a healthy work environment, the development of proficiency in tele-ICU knowledge, skills and abilities, and the need to support and engage in research.New vignettes provide powerful testimony to the impact of tele-ICU nursing. Each vignette is written as a demonstration of how tele-ICU nursing can fulfill the 3 consensus recommendations. Vignettes include help provided by a tele-ICU nurse to a family practice physician managing a cardiac arrest at a remote Alaska critical access hospital, support provided during recent natural disasters to hospitals requiring evacuation, and coaching the staff of a small rural hospital in the application of a hypothermia protocol for a patient resuscitated after cardiac arrest.The AACN TeleICU Nursing Practice Model was also given a new look in AACN TeleICU Nursing Practice. This model is supported by both the AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care and AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments: A Journey to Excellence, 2nd edition. The updated TeleICU Nursing Practice Model demonstrates how the key concepts of true collaboration, practice excellence, and skilled communication enhance patient care when combined with the optimized use of technology and the application of authentic leadership.AACN TeleICU Nursing Practice also includes a name change. This updated document has been classified as an expert consensus statement instead of a guide-line to reflect that the body of evidence to support tele-ICU nursing is still developing. The task force recommended the name change and included an acknowledgment that further research, both quantitative and qualitative, are needed to support tele-ICU nursing and to ensure optimal patient outcomes for the future. Among the task force’s recommendations for future research are inquiry into appropriate staffing models, optimal communication methods, nursing interventions, mentoring, retention, moral distress, return on investment, and the impact of the Tele-ICU Nursing Practice Model on patients and families.
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