Telehealth Education: An Interprofessional Online Immersion Experience in Response to COVID-19.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities halted in-person education and health care pivoted to telehealth delivery models. This article describes a nurse-led educational program that transitioned to fully online delivery to prepare interprofessional teams of health care students to use telehealth during the pandemic and beyond. METHOD: Participants included 67 students from seven professions. Researchers developed "the four Ps of telehealth" model to guide the curriculum. The program used pre- and postassessments including the Confidence in Planning for Telehealth Scale, the Telehealth Etiquette Knowledge Scale, and the Confidence in Providing Telehealth Scale. RESULTS: There were significant improvements in scores on all scales following the program (p = .000). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that comprehensive telehealth education should focus on more than just delivering telehealth but also planning and preparing for its delivery. Programs such as this online program can serve as a model for future telehealth programs to prepare providers. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(10)570-576.].