Telenursing: A new opportunity for care of chronic patients

In the beginning of the 21st century with the shifting of patterns to the chronic diseases, self-efficacy of chronic patients becomes a major problem in most health systems of worldwide. In this regard, telenursing was introduced as one of the health strategies to increase the self-efficacy in chronic patients. The aim of this study was to determine the nature of the evolving tele nursing in chronic diseases in Iran. In this systematic review,the search of clinical trials was conducted in databases of country including Magiran, Medline, Irandoc ,SID and Latin databases, Google scholar, Scopus Pubmed using the keywords telenursing and telephone follow-up during 2012 -2016.After reviewing the literature, the results were qualitatively presente Total of 17 clinical trials conducted in Iran, 9 and 8 cases were published in Persian and English Journals, respectively. These trails were conducted on 12, 1, 3 and 1 cases in diabetic patients, epileptic patients, in patients with cardiovascular disorders in hemodialysis patients, respectively. Results showed that telenursing in diabetics due to control blood sugar, reduced glycosylated hemoglobin and adherence to treatment and in other patients caused the improved quality of life, reducing readmission, increasing self-efficacy, decreasing stress, depression and anxiety. According to the findings, telenursing is a convenient wayfor training and follow-up care of chronic patients, which can improve the adherence to patients' treatment in developing countries such as Iran. Therefore, it is recommended that telenursing be placed in the care plan of chronic patients.