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

Telehealth is an emerging technology for the delivery of health care services. Providers need to be trained to maximize the potential benefits for rural and underserved populations.

A quality improvement approach to curricular redesign was used to integrate telehealth in a family nurse practitioner program. The intervention consisted of telehealth learning outcomes and a lecture-style presentation in a role transition course. A Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle informed faculty decision making in a small test of change. Self-reported confidence in telehealth knowledge was measured with a knowledge survey to determine whether the change was an improvement.

Student confidence in telehealth knowledge increased following the intervention. The change provided an opportunity for faculty to consider additional approaches to integrating telehealth learning experiences in practicum courses.

This project provided an improvement framework on which faculty can build and test effective pedagogical approaches to training graduate nursing students on the use of telehealth technology. [J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(1):57-60.].