Telehospice Acceptance Among Providers: A Multidisciplinary Comparison

Abstract

Telehospice, the delivery of end-of-life care using telecommunications technologies, allows increased interaction between providers and patients. For telehospice to be successful, it must first be accepted by professionals as a useful and user-friendly method of service delivery. Existing research regarding provider acceptance of telehospice has been limited in geographic scope and has often excluded input from key members of the hospice team. This study measured telehospice acceptance in a national sample of hospice professionals from various disciplines (N = 160). Results indicate that acceptance was moderately high overall, although significant differences existed among individuals from different disciplines, with nurses and administrators generally indicating higher levels of acceptance than social workers and chaplains. Findings demonstrate that telehospice interventions will likely be more readily accepted by nursing and administrative staff members, while those employees who address primarily psychosocial issues may be reluctant to use such technology.