| Telenursing is the use of telemedicine technology to deliver nursing care and conduct nursing practice (Schlachta & Sparks, 1999). Telenursing is a new role in response to rapid adoption of telemedicine technology in healthcare. Role stress of new nursing roles such as telenursing can cause turnover, burnout, and loss of continuity of care, which negatively impacts individual patients and healthcare organizations. As telemedicine proliferates, the role of nurses will become more important. Identifying issues related to use and integration of telemedicine into nurses' roles will encourage telenursing participation and position nursing practice to maximize use of telemedicine.;Using Role Theory concepts, this descriptive study identified 796 U.S. telenurses, representing 40 states. From this population, 196 telenurses participated in a telephonic or an online, web-based survey during Summer 2000. The purposes were to (1) Describe (a) telenurses' professional role(s) and characteristics and (b) strategies for nursing competence and patient safety; (2) Measure telenurses' work satisfaction, role stress and their components; (3) Predict the relationship between work satisfaction, individual and professional role characteristics, and role stress/ambiguity/conflict.;The typical telenurse is 46 years old, has worked 21 years in nursing and >6 months in her telenursing position. She has a 27% chance of being an advanced practice nurse, and has a baccalaureate degree, and likely a graduate degree. The typical telenurse is white, female, married, has children, works full-time in telenursing and earns ;Regression analysis indicated that education level and work satisfaction both predict role stress and ambiguity in telenurses. Higher education levels are associated with higher role stress and ambiguity. Greater work satisfaction is associated with lower role stress and ambiguity. Role ambiguity, education level and work satisfaction are significant predictors of role conflict. |
