VIDEOPHONE FIELD TESTING FOR SENIOR CARE

Oregon Health And Science University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: The proposed field test will evaluate the effectiveness of a telenursing health-promotion intervention, Let's Talk for Health Improvement (Let's Talk), on outcomes of health-promoting behavior change, emotional function change, and health care utilization change among community-dwelling persons aged 70 and older. The Let's Talk Model, adapted from Pender's (1996) Revised Health Promotion Model (HPM) is the framework for testing the intervention which features nurse assessment feedback, collaborative nurse-patients goal setting, and self-empowerment strategies for behavioral improvements. The study also will examine the relative effectiveness and satisfaction of patients and nurses when using a videophone or an audiophone for Let's Talk. A 3-group pre-post randomized controlled trial design will be used: 2 experimental groups of 20 subjects each will receive Let's Talk. The audiophone group will serve as a control for the videophone group. The usual care group of 20 subjects will not receive Let's Talk and will serve as a control for the combined videophone and audiophone groups. Hypotheses are that Let's Talk, a nursing health-promotion telephone intervention that support individual patient goals will be more effective than usual care for achieving improved health-promoting behaviors, improved emotional function, and reduced health care utilization. The study also will examine whether the treatment effects vary by patient characteristics (e.g., functional status, stage-of-change readiness for personal improvement goals) in order to determine for whom the nursing intervention and the telephone modes are most effective. Patient and nurse perceptions gained from interview and call reports will be content analyzed to identify any unanticipated benefits. Statistical procedures will include descriptive statistics, chi square analysis for categorical data, and analysis of variance for interval data and correlational analysis for some scores as appropriate. The conduct of this study will make a unique contribution to the clinical preparation of nurses in Oregon. As the interface of health care and technology rapidly progresses, students need clinical and technical opportunities that will enhance their clinical ability to provide effective health promotion and wellness services without being in the same room as their patients.