Improving Telehealth Knowledge in Nurse Practitioner Training for Rural and Underserved Populations.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Health Informatics
• Telemedicine

Background:

• Telehealth is a growing healthcare delivery method requiring provider training.
• Maximizing telehealth benefits for rural and underserved populations is crucial.
• Integrating telehealth into nursing curricula is essential for future healthcare providers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate telehealth education into a family nurse practitioner program.
• To assess the impact of a telehealth curriculum intervention on student confidence.
• To develop a framework for improving telehealth pedagogical approaches.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement approach guided curricular redesign.
• Telehealth learning outcomes and a lecture were implemented in a role transition course.
• A Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle informed faculty decisions, with confidence measured via survey.

Main Results:

• Student self-reported confidence in telehealth knowledge significantly increased post-intervention.
• The intervention highlighted opportunities for further telehealth integration in practicum courses.
• Faculty gained insights into effective pedagogical strategies for telehealth training.

Conclusions:

• The project established an improvement framework for developing and testing telehealth training methods.
• This framework supports enhancing graduate nursing students' skills in telehealth technology.
• Effective pedagogical approaches are key to preparing nurses for telehealth delivery.