A practical path to sustainable development – ​​Nursing Education Network

Khairat, S., and Clipper, B. (2025). Virtual nursing and the long run of sustainable workforce development. JAMA network open, 8(12), e2545603-e2545603.

Nursing staff shortages aren’t any longer a looming threat – they have gotten a typical on a regular basis operational reality. Health care systems within the U.S. (and lots of other countries) are grappling with burnout, worker turnover, and an aging nursing workforce. These challenges have increased during and after Covid-19. As a result, fewer registered nurses are working on the bedside. Meanwhile, the demand for care continues to grow.

In this context, virtual nursing has turn out to be a workforce strategy. This model supports telehealth. Nurses provide care remotely by communicating, monitoring and collaborating with in-person teams. This is usually presented as a strategy to protect time on the bedside, standardize key processes, and maintain quality when staffing is proscribed.

But the query that matters most to workforce sustainability is a straightforward one: Does virtual care actually help bedside nurses?

Whether virtual nursing reduces burnout and improves worker retention, whether it actually fills staffing gaps (in comparison with task redistribution), and whether the gains in performance outweigh the prices of technology and staffing will determine its value.

Nursing indicators may include:

• turnover, sick leave, retention, perceived workload, risk of burnout (on the bedside AND actual)
• quality of discharge, response to escalation, frequency of adversarial events, patient understanding of education
• length of stay, readmissions, delays in discharge processes
• staff cost + technology vs measurable increase in efficiency and results

Bottom line: Virtual nursing is a workforce strategy – but only with thoughtful design. Sustainable workforce development means not carrying burnout to a brand new location.

Key point regarding staffing: If we design virtual care poorly, we may simply shift the workload from bedside nurses to virtual nurses. Virtual nursing doesn’t replace staff. This is a care delivery model that should be integrated with core protected staffing and redesigned workflows.

American Nurses Association. (2025). Principles of virtual nursing.

Khairat SM, MorelliJ, Qin Q, et al. (2025). The impact of virtual nurse implementation on the efficiency and quality of care in emergency departments. AmJEmergMed. 91:59-66.

Muir JK, Maye A, McHugh MD, Aiken LH, Vo V, Lasater KB. (2025). A virtual nurse to take care of hospitalized patients. JAMA Netw Open. 8(12):e2545597.