Being Present in a Distant Room: Aspects of Teleconsultations with Older People in a Nursing Home

Abstract

In a telecare project in Northern Sweden, videophones have been used to facilitate teleconsultations between nurses and elders at a nursing home. The authors designed this study to elucidate qualities in the communication in the professional encounter between nurses and elders assisted by nursing staff in the teleconsultations. They interviewed 2 registered nurses and 5 nursing staff members with long experience of using videophones in the telecare project, out of 20 staff members, and analyzed them using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method. In a comprehensive interpretation, teleconsultations could be understood as glimpses of the experience of being in the other’s room with a feeling of providing nursing presence. This was attained when aspects such as familiarity, safety, transparency, and interest were promoted.