Nursing teleconsultation: development of a platform for Covid-19 case management

Objective: To develop a virtual Teleconsultation platform for care of suspected cases of influenza syndromes and infection by COVID-19. Methodology: This is a study of applied nature, with development of technological and innovative production, prospective, ecological, descriptive, time series. The study population was made up of any person symptomatic for COVID-19 influenza syndromes, suspected or confirmed, from any location in Brazil. This study was conducted in two stages, namely: Stage I: Development of the Application for Teleconsultation Platform. Stage II: care through Teleconsultation of suspected cases of COVID-19 and influenza syndromes. The methodology used to develop the proposed application was evolutionary prototyping modeling. Results: There were 209 consultations in the Teleconsultation Platform, 151 (70%) were female and 65 (30%) were male, with prevalence of age ranging from 20 to 29 years (41%). As for the risk of infection by COVID-19, 42 (20%) had high risk, 75 (36%) medium risk and 92 (44%) low risk. The most prevalent symptoms were: nasal discharge or sneezing (53%), body aches (49%), headache (47%), sore throat (46%), dry cough (35%), fever (31%), shortness of breath (25%), and diarrhea (23%). Initially, the telecare was composed of teletry with risk classification based on the symptomatology of the patients who were coded with scores according to symptom severity for severe forms of COVID-19. The risk classification categorized patients into low risk (1 to 9 points), medium risk (10 to 19 points), and high risk (20 to 36 points). Then, the teleconsultation was scheduled according to the patient's availability through the SBAR method for effective communication and at the end of the service a care plan with Nursing Assistance Systematization - SAE was forwarded to the patient through WhatsApp or e-mail. Conclusion: Teleconsultation platform enabled patient triage, reduced unnecessary visits to emergency units, allowed the evaluation and monitoring of cases, as well as the follow- up of outpatients who do not need face-to-face evaluation.