Community nurses’ experiences with digital sensory interventions in remote primary care: a qualitative descriptive study of trust, privacy, and family dynamics
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Community nurses increasingly use digital sensory interventions (DSIs), audio-first elicitation, data-enabled inputs, and selectively visual, opt-in steps coordinated via Field-of-View (FoV) negotiation to assess patients at home, where trust, privacy, and family dynamics are decisive. AIM: To describe how community nurses enact DSIs in remote primary care and how these practices shape trust-building/repair, privacy protection, and family-role orchestration. METHODS: Qualitative descriptive study across three community nursing services in Al-Majmaah, Saudi Arabia. Purposive maximum-variation sampling recruited 24 Registered Nurses for semi-structured interviews (March–June 2025; Arabic/English). Data were transcribed, de-identified, bilingual-checked, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (NVivo 14) within a pragmatic–constructivist stance; information power guided sufficiency. Trustworthiness procedures included peer debriefing, disconfirming-case analysis, and an audit trail. RESULTS: A four-theme model explained DSI enactment. (1) Stepwise workflow: pre-brief/environment setup → FoV negotiation (if needed) → coached audio-led tests aligned with device data; when discrepant, real-time clinical cues (audio and, when consented, visual) were prioritized over asynchronous logs. (2) Trust work: transparent narration, post-glitch recap, and patient control at intimate junctures. (3) Privacy as boundary work: dynamic consent refresh, FoV zoning/presence management, and modality switching/pausing with documentation in a privacy-actions field. (4) Family roles: deliberate, bounded tasking to preserve patient-first talk and curb gatekeeping. Outputs include teachable micro-practices for curricula and protocol. CONCLUSIONS: DSIs are nurse-led sociotechnical practices requiring codified workflow safeguards, consent-in-action, narrated modality management, and governed family roles. Findings translate into a DSI safety bundle, tele-OSCE curricula, and EHR prompts for ethical, person-centred remote care. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.
Source: BMC Nursing
Author: Abdullah Alotaibi
Institution: Majmaah University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,090
OpenAlex ID: W4417292049