Virtual nursing models offer a new path for patient care and retention

Nearly 40% of the current nursing workforce say they are planning to leave the profession by 2029, and hospitals are being pushed to rethink how they will deliver care. One solution gaining momentum: virtual nursing models that don’t just add technology — they change the role of the nurse itself. By shifting certain tasks away from the bedside, these programs aim to help nurses focus on what drew them to healthcare in the first place: direct patient care.

“Virtual nursing is helping nurses get back to the joy in their work,” said Emily Warr, administrator of the Center for Telehealth at the Medical University of South Carolina during a presentation at ViVE 2025. “We’re pulling away activities that take them away from patients and putting those on a virtual staff.”

Warr was joined by Al Smith, senior vice president and chief information officer at LifePoint Health, Rachelle Longo, director of Virtual Care at Ochsner Health, and Sherene Schlegel, who leads Virtual Care and Digital Health at Providence Health. 

“Virtual nursing is one of the few strategies that’s actually bringing people back into the workforce,” said Smith. “It gives us a way to re-engage nurses who are burned out from working at the bedside.”

Early signs show virtual nursing models are helping with recruitment and retention, too. Schlegel reported a 95% retention rate in their virtual physician program. She credited the success to how deliberately they designed their tools. “We worked closely with our medical directors to make sure the technology makes physicians’ time more efficient and user-friendly,” she said.

Virtual nursing isn’t just attractive to seasoned nurses — it’s drawing in new talent. Longo said their program became so popular among nursing students that it developed a waitlist. Even nursing assistants were leaving competing hospitals to join. “Word got out in the community about this new model,” she said.

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For rural hospitals, the potential impact is even bigger. “What excites me is being able to share resources that rural hospitals don’t always have,” Smith said. By centralizing certain roles, health systems can make sure expertise reaches areas that often struggle to attract it.

But virtual nursing models aren’t just about adding screens. They demand new workflows and a focus on quality outcomes, not just efficiency metrics. “When I show them the data, I show them the quality piece, too,” Longo said. “The patients we reach are less likely to be readmitted. That really touches the nurses’ souls and makes them want to do better.”

Technology needs to fit into clinical life without overwhelming it. Warr emphasized discipline in program design: “You can’t be all things to all people, or your service will change fast.”

Long term, healthcare leaders see virtual nursing models not as a temporary fix, but a lasting change to the profession. Flexible career paths, longer working lives, and more time for meaningful patient care could reshape nursing for years to come.

“We are in a paradigm shift in healthcare,” Warr said. “The way we think about bedside nursing is changing — and that’s going to change the way nurses feel about their work.”

For systems looking to build virtual nursing programs, Warr has one piece of advice: move fast, but start wide. “Start in more than one unit, more than one hospital, more than one clinic,” she said. “Then grow quickly.”