An integrative review of nurse-led virtual clinics.

Nurse-led virtual clinics are planned contact by a nurse to a patient for the purposes of clinical consultation, advice and treatment planning. It is a promising innovation yet to be fully utilised within models of health service delivery. Despite the increasing popularity of virtual clinics, there is still a very limited understanding of how this platform could be fully integrated as part of day-to-day nursing practice in the future. This integrative review aimed to examine nurse- led virtual clinic follow-up within chronic care services, particularly on clinical utility and clinical outcomes. An extensive literature search was undertaken from online databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid, Scopus and Google Scholar. Publications written in English on nurse-led virtual clinics for chronic or long-term conditions were included. A total of 43 articles published from 2000 to 2015 were initially found. Twelve articles satisfied the inclusion criteria and were selected for review. Three main themes were identified: technical aspects of nurse-led virtual clinics, outcomes of nurse-led virtual clinics, and the future application of nurse-led virtual clinics within the health industry. Results from studies indicate that nurse-led virtual clinics are patient-centred, cost effective and provide efficient delivery of care. Nurse-led virtual clinics have potential to effectively respond to increasing demands and pressures within New Zealand health care services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]