The School of Nursing at the University of Texas at Austin is using a robotic nurse to arm students with real-world experience in administering care via telemedicine, according to The Daily Texan.
The Robo-Advanced Practice Registered Nurse is the result of a $9,764 grant from the UT-Austin Faculty Innovation Center. It allows students to interact with patients by videoconferencing, a type of telemedicine in which healthcare providers can evaluate patients remotely.
The robot is basically an iPad on a stick that the healthcare provider is able to drive around, Valerie Danesh, PhD, RN, assistant nursing professor and co-principal investigator for RoboAPRN, told The Daily Texan.
According to Donna Rolin, PhD, APRN, assistant professor of clinical nursing, RoboAPRN has the potential to serve mental health patients, a group that is often underserved, especially in rural locations.
"These patients are underserved in so many ways," Dr. Rolin said. "They're the last patients that get served, often times, and they're the ones with a lot of the highest level of needs."
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