How to Become a Telehealth Nurse

As virtual healthcare services become more common, the demand for telehealth nurses grows. Telehealth nurses provide patients with distance healthcare by employing virtual visits and remote monitoring.

Nurses and other healthcare providers can offer remote clinical care, maintain public health, and administer health insurance programs using telehealth services.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 9% growth in jobs for registered nurses between 2020 to 2030. The average salary for telehealth nursing is $31.30/ hour, according to a small sampling of December 2021 Payscale data.

Discover how to become a telehealth nurse below.

Telehealth nurses work remotely to promote wellness, provide care, perform triage (i.e., assigning the level of urgency based on an assessment), manage cases, or perform other jobs, like informatics.

Telehealth is healthcare provided via electronic means. It can involve phone interactions, remote monitoring, or online video chats.

RNs working as telehealth nurses often gather information (e.g., symptoms or conditions) from the patient to pass on to the treating physician or nurse practitioner.

They often perform initial screenings to find out if an onsite visit is necessary. Telehealth nurses get information about a patient via medical devices, like digital scopes and wearable monitors that send data to the nurse via a healthcare app.

Becoming a telehealth nurse includes earning a qualifying degree from an accredited college or university, passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) exam for nurse licensure, gaining bedside experience as a registered nurse (RN), and becoming certified. Licensure requirements vary from state to state.

The minimum degree requirement for a telehealth nurse is an ADN, but many employers require a BSN degree.

As stated earlier The AAACN offers no certification course for telehealth nurses, but recommends that telehealth nurses pursue board certified Ambulatory Care Nurse (AMB-BC) credentials.

Ambulatory care nurses must be licensed as RNs. Nurses need to renew their RN licensure annually. Each state has different renewal requirements, but all RNs are required to take continuing education (CE) classes.

Check with your state board of licensure to find out how many CEs you need for yearly licensing renewal. Once you receive your RN license, there are other prerequisites for AMB-BC certification, including:

Once you meet certification requirements, you can apply for testing online here. Applications are accepted year-round. The initial step is getting an authorization to test (ATT).

Next, pass the in-person or live, online certification test. Finally, wait for your results. Every five years, you need to renew your AMB-BC certification.

According to 29 profiles Payscale sampled in December 2021, the average base salary for telehealth nurses is $31.30 per hour, with an annual wage ranging $43,000 – $88,000.

A telehealth nurse may work in clinics (e.g., physicians practices), hospitals, or other healthcare settings. They may even work remotely from home. Most telehealth nurses perform some of the same job duties, such as virtual video or phone visits to assess a patient’s symptoms.

Telehealth nurses working in a hospital setting may perform follow-up care after a hospital discharges a patient. Nurses working in a physician’s practice or ambulatory care center may monitor patients after a procedure, or evaluate whether an in-person visit is necessary.

RNs working from home can perform some jobs, such as triage or case management, but they cannot perform direct patient care.

It takes two to four years to become an RN, but most employers require several years’ experience caring for patients at the bedside before working as a telehealth nurse.

Telehealth nurses can perform many job duties, including: direct patient care, triage, case management, interpreting remote patient monitoring, performing patient education, and more.

A registered nurse may not prescribe medication, but a nurse practitioner can prescribe certain medications under the supervision of an M.D.

The pay for telehealth nurses can vary depending on the setting you work in, your education and experience level, and whether you are certified. According to 2021 Payscale data, a telehealth nurse makes between $43k – $88k per year.