| Summary: | Significance & Background: Bedside nurses across the United States are increasingly challenged by rising patient acuity, complex care demands, and persistent staffing shortages. At a large academic medical center, the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) inpatient unit faced significant barriers to delivering comprehensive patient education during admissions. Patients under-going chemotherapy and transplantation require de-tailed instruction to understand infusion protocols, treatment expectations, and self-care responsibilities. This education, combined with admission documentation, often consumed 45 to 90 minutes per patient. Staff expressed concern over the time demands of this process, which impacted their ability to manage other patient care responsibilities. This project addressed a critical gap by introducing a Virtual Registered Nurse (ViRN) to deliver Hematology/Oncology/BMT-specific education. While the institution had existing ViRN infrastructure, this unit did not have the capabilities of using this resource for specialty-specific needs. This project aimed to optimize nursing workflow and ensure that bedside nurses could focus on high-priority clinical tasks. Purpose: To enhance nursing efficiency and patient education quality by reallocating the time-intensive task of admission education and documentation to a Virtual Registered Nurse (ViRN), thereby supporting bedside nurses in delivering safe, timely, and patient-centered care. Interventions: Four volunteer ViRN champions were selected from the unit and trained in virtual care delivery and technology integration. These champions implemented the ViRN model into their clinical practice. A pre- and post-intervention assessment was developed to evaluate the time required for admission education. Time-tracking data was collected before and during the intervention to assess the impact on workflow efficiency. Results: The implementation of ViRN significantly reduced the time required to complete admission and chemotherapy education (p = 0.002). The virtual education process was more streamlined and thorough, enabling bedside nurses to reallocate time to other patients. Both ViRN and bedside nurses were able to operate at the top of their scope of practice, enhancing the quality and consistency of care delivery. Discussion: This project demonstrated that integrating a virtual nurse into the admission process can meaningfully improve workflow efficiency, reduce nurse burden, and enhance the consistency of patient education. By leveraging virtual nursing, the unit was able to bridge a critical resource gap and support frontline staff in delivering high-quality care. Future directions include evaluating the long-term impact of ViRN on staff satisfaction, patient comprehension, and scalability across other oncology and inpatient units.
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