Online diagnosis and prescription may reduce demand for staff time
Online interactive software (or apps) may reduce face-to-face time patients need from nurses or GPs, which could allow staff to focus on critical interventions as well as impact the supply of the nursing workforce.
With the arrival of the internet, patients are typically better informed about health conditions than they were previously and more likely to self-diagnose. As online interactive software and portable device apps become more reliable and effective, this trend towards self diagnosis can only increase.
If self diagnosis can be managed sensibly, it could reduce the amount of face-to-face time patients need from nurses or GPs, and even reduce the role of nurses and GPs in prescribing. It could also allow nurses and GPs to focus on critical interventions, with more minor or mundane matters handled by individuals themselves. This could impact the supply of the nursing workforce.
Policymakers should therefore consider how growing trends towards self-diagnosis may affect both supply and demand of the nursing workforce. Signs from the Department of Health’s Whole System Demonstrator programme are positive, with possible reductions in mortality rates, admissions to hospital and bed days in hospital and accident and emergency.
Sources or references
- Suggested by number of stakeholders in interview and in workshops during CfWI research on nursing.
- From unpublished CfWI report (report available on request).
- Cruickshank J (2010). Healthcare without walls: A framework for delivering telehealth at scale, 2020 Health
- Ball, J. (2011). Data collection and review in the delivery of safe care. Nurs Manag (Harrow) 17(9): 20-22.
- Genetics in Nursing & Midwifery Task and Finish Group (2011). Genetics/genomics in nursing and midwifery: Task and Finish Group report to the Nursing and Midwifery Professional Advisory Board. Birmingham, NHS National Genetics Education and Development Centre.
- Department of Health, 2011, Whole System Demonstrator Programme: headline findings http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_131684
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
