Impact of unscheduled nurse-led virtual care for people with diabetes on nursing practices and patient satisfaction.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and its social restrictions accelerated the expansion of virtual clinical care, and this has been reported to be safe, low cost and flexible.

Aim: This study aimed to examine nursing practices and patient satisfaction with unscheduled nurse-led virtual care for people with diabetes.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey of clinical nurse specialists and patients was carried out, using an activities log for nursing practices and a satisfaction and enablement survey for callers.

Findings: Patients reported high satisfaction levels and greater self-confidence in keeping themselves healthy after receiving virtual care. Most calls (74.8%) from patients were for advice and education. Each call led to an average of 2.5 actions for the clinical nurse specialist.

Conclusion: The service is highly valued and is effective, but adds to the nurse workload burden.