Telehealth is Here to Stay: Implementing and Utilizing Telehealth in Nurse Practitioner Clinical Courses
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has emerged as a preferred method of healthcare delivery (Lee, 2023). Advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) often serve multiple roles, including health care provider, educator, researcher, administrator, and patient advocate. (Garber et al., 2023). In 2020, over 290,000 APRNs were practicing, with primary care being the largest subset (Frey & Chiu, 2021), with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) noting that 63% of APRNs were actively engaged in telehealth (Frey & Chiu, 2021). Incorporating telehealth access can enhance patient care; however, healthcare providers need to stay updated on evolving policies, procedures, and guidelines. To ensure its effectiveness, one must be diligent in the ever-changing policies and procedures for telehealth visits, including technology use, patient safety, privacy, billing, etiquette, and ensuring accurate examinations and diagnoses. Integrating telehealth into nurse practitioner (NP) education aims to enhance students’ proficiency and appreciation for its benefits, such as convenient and timeefficient access to care (HRSA, 2024). The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Facilities ([NONPF], 2018) supports incorporating telehealth into nursing curricula, emphasizing its consistency and the need for relevant content. Telehealth simulations with standardized patients (SPs) allow students to refine their skills, receive feedback, with students being evaluated based on their interactions, debriefing sessions, and written SOAP notes. Faculty monitor outcomes, including students’ knowledge and comfort levels with telehealth at various stages. NONPF suggests competencies for telehealth training such as professionalism, appropriate visit selection, privacy, assessment, diagnosis, documentation, and billing (2018). Faculty and preceptors also provide feedback on students’ comfort and competence in conducting telehealth visits. Although still developing, this initiative aims to expand telehealth training. Studies show that NP students' confidence improves with the telehealth curriculum and simulation practice (Gibson et al., 2020). Ongoing data collection and feedback from students, SPs, and faculty are being analyzed, with current results showing pre-implementation and mid-semester data
