Resources to Support Canadian Nurses to Deliver Virtual Care: Environmental Scan

Background: Regulatory and professional nursing associations have an important role in ensuring that nurses provide safe, competent, and ethical care and are capable of adapting to emerging phenomena that influence society and population health needs. Telehealth and more recently virtual care are 2 digital health modalities that have gained momentum during the COVID-19pandemic. Telehealth refers to telecommunications and digital communication technologies used to deliver health care, support health care provider and patient education, and facilitate self-care. Virtual care facilitates the delivery of health care services viaany remote communication between patients and health care providers and among health care providers, either synchronouslyor asynchronously, through information and communication technologies. Despite nurses'adaptability to delivering virtual care, many have also reported challenges. Objective: This study aims to describe resources about virtual care, digital health, and nursing informatics (ie, practice guidelinesand fact sheets) available to Canadian nurses through their regulatory and professional associations. Methods: An environmental scan was conducted between March and July 2023. The websites of nursing regulatory bodiesacross 13 Canadian provinces and territories and relevant nursing and a few nonnursing professional associations were searched.Data were extracted from the websites of these organizations to map out educational materials, training opportunities, andguidelines made available for nurses to learn and adapt to the ongoing digitalization of the health care system. Information fromeach source was summarized and analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach to identify categories and themes. TheVirtual Health Competency Framework was applied to support the analysis process. Results: Seven themes were identified: (1) types of resources available about virtual care, (2) terminologies used in virtual careresources, (3) currency of virtual care resources identified, (4) requirements for providing virtual care between provinces, (5)resources through professional nursing associations and other relevant organizations, (6) regulatory guidance versus competencyin virtual care, and (7) resources about digital health and nursing informatics. Results also revealed that practice guidance fordelivering telehealth existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was further expanded during the pandemic. Differences werenoted across available resources with respect to terms used (eg, telenursing, telehealth, or virtual care), types of documents (eg,guideline vs fact sheet), and the depth of information shared. Only 2 associations provided comprehensive telenursing practiceguidelines. Resources relative to digital health and nursing informatics exist, but variations between provinces were also noted. Conclusions: The use of telehealth and virtual care services is becoming mainstream in Canadian health care. Despite variationsacross jurisdictions, the existing nursing practice guidance resources for delivering telehealth and virtual care are substantial and can serve as a beginning step for developing a standardized set of practice requirements or competencies to inform nursing practiceand the education of future nurses