[Telemedicine for residents of nursing homes: what do general medicine interns think?]

Abstract

Nursing homes are suffering from a shortage of medical and paramedical staff, at a time when demand for care is rising steadily and the proportion of people aged 65 and over has increased by 4.7 points in 20 years to 20.5% of the French population. This age group could reach 28.7% by 2070, exacerbating the difficulties faced by nursing homes if no measures are taken. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to help the elderly is a promising avenue, and its development will depend in part on future generations of general practitioners. We carried out a quantitative study, using a self-administered questionnaire and on-line survey software, to assess the knowledge of general medical interns at the Reims Faculty of Medicine about the practice of telemedicine in nursing homes. Evaluate their experiences of telemedicine, and identify obstacles and motivations, in order to highlight possible levers that could contribute to the development of this practice. Finally, we measured the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on current and future use of telemedicine in nursing homes. Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine has seen lightning growth, particularly in nursing homes. Despite some reluctance, the general practitioner remains an essential element in achieving these objectives, but this will require the training of new generations of doctors right from the start of their clerkship. The development of telemedicine in nursing homes will have to be pursued through a complex territorial medical project, taking into account the specificities of the care offer in the territory under consideration, and the existence of a well-developed and adapted financial model for both investment and operation.