Background:

the disruption caused by the pandemic COVID-19 in the access to health care was enormous. Many nurses used telephone consultation or other digital means (telenursing) to mitigate the impact on the population's health, but there are no recommendations for this practice.

Objectives:

to define recommendations to promote the development and standardization of the provision of telenursing care in Portugal.

Methodology:

project promoted by the Portuguese Nurses Board, Centre Region ). First, a quick literature review and a survey of needs and proposals were conducted through a survey to nurses and users. An Expert Panel (n=29) was then formed, mainly composed of nurses (referred by professional associations), but also by representatives of user associations, managers, among others. For each recommendation developed, the level of agreement was established (between 1 and 10) and it was adopted if approved by ≥75% of the experts.

Results:

consensus was reached on 4 general principles and 10 recommendations for conducting telenursing. The main concerns were the guarantee of safety, quality and individuality of care, which requires the adequacy of human, technical and training/organizational resources.

Conclusion:

these are the first recommendations for the provision of telenursing care, developed by nurses, users and other health stakeholders.