WTKE - Episode 69: How Virtual Nursing Empowers Bedside Teams

As hospitals across the country face growing workforce pressures and evolving patient expectations, virtual nursing has emerged as a powerful tool to improve clinical efficiency, enhance patient experience, and create a more sustainable model of care.

In this new Working Together episode, MaineHealth Chief Operating Officer Kelly Elkins explores the development and implementation of a virtual nursing strategy at MaineHealth—a bold step toward transforming how we support our patients and frontline care teams. 

Joining Kelly are leaders who are helping bring this vision to life at MaineHealth — Sharon Baughman, Chief Nursing Officer at MaineHealth and Linda Mynahan-Greenstein, Director Nursing at Mid Coast Hospital. They share how the strategy was developed, the challenges and insights along the way, and the measurable impact it’s already having across the system. 

They explore MaineHealth’s development and micro‑pilot of a virtual nursing strategy at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, Maine, focusing on admission and discharge support for bedside nurses.

They discuss implementation, early patient and nurse reactions, measurable goals, and plans to scale the model — emphasizing that virtual nursing augments care rather than replaces in‑person nurses.