Telehealth and eHealth in nurse practitioner training: current perspectives.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Health Informatics
• Telemedicine

Background:

• Telehealth is crucial for accessible, cost-effective healthcare, especially for rural and underserved populations.
• Nurse practitioners (NPs) are key providers, necessitating their proficiency in telehealth technologies.
• Limited literature exists on NP-specific telehealth training programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline essential topics for NP training in telehealth.
• To present a multimodal training approach for NPs and NP students.
• To address the gap in NP telehealth education.

Main Methods:

• Literature review to identify telehealth training topics and techniques.
• Development of a multimodal training strategy encompassing didactics, simulations, practice immersions, and projects.
• Focus on key areas: telehealth definition, etiquette, collaboration, regulations, reimbursement, HIPAA, ethics, and satisfaction.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive overview of telehealth training topics for NPs was compiled.
• A multimodal training approach was proposed, integrating various learning modalities.
• Studies indicate this approach enhances NP comfort, knowledge, and skills in telehealth.

Conclusions:

• Effective telehealth training for NPs is vital for expanding healthcare access.
• The proposed multimodal approach is effective in preparing NPs for telehealth practice.
• Further development and implementation of such training programs are recommended.