Virtual Nursing Programs May Not Offload In-Hospital Nurses

TUESDAY, Dec. 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Virtual nursing programs in hospital care have been received with mixed reviews by in-hospital nurses, according to a study published online Dec. 5 in JAMA Network Open.

K. Jane Muir, Ph.D., R.N., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues evaluated whether the presence of virtual nurses (VNs) improves nurse workload and patient care quality. The analysis included responses from 880 participants in the 2024 Nurses4All survey.

The researchers found that the top uses of VNs were patient observation (53 percent), admission and discharge activities (45 percent), and patient education (37 percent). Most nurses (57 percent) reported that VNs did not reduce their workload, and among these, 10 percent said VNs increased their workload. Even among the 366 nurses who said VNs reduced their workloads, only 8 percent reported that workloads were reduced “by a lot.” Just over half of nurses (53 percent) said VNs improved quality of care, but only 11 percent reported that quality was improved “by a lot.” VNs had no impact on care quality according to 391 nurses (47%), with 34 (4%) stating that VNs reduced care quality. Nurses described the limitations of VNs as related to staffing, patient distrust, and workflow inefficiencies.

“Virtual nursing programs have been heralded as an innovative silver bullet to hospitals’ nurse staffing challenges, but our findings show that most bedside nurses are not experiencing major benefits,” Muir said in a statement. “Hospitals should be cautious about implementing virtual nursing programs. There is no evidence that virtual nurses are a safe substitute for in-person nursing.”

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