Telehealth in Health Professions Education: Meeting Demand

• In Event: Reimagining and Reinventing Health Professions Education in COVID's Environment: Moving From Crisis to Opportunity

Abstract

Summary

Challenges and Opportunities. With COVID-19, in-person health services declined, and routine clinical practicums came to a standstill. This forced significant change upon health professions education impacting many stakeholders including health organizations, universities, educators, and students. As a solution, Telehealth (TH) provided access to health services for patients and their families, especially in remote or under-served areas, and an option for academic programs. Program directors across professions explored a shift to TH with varying degrees of commitment, expertise, and motivation.

Purpose. In this presentation, I will describe adjusting pedagogy in response to an acute issue that restricted availability of learning sites by incorporating TH in training of health professionals. With implementation of modified teaching strategies, programs also aimed to accommodate regulatory standards.

Theory/Perspectives. Rogers’ Division of Innovations theory offers a helpful lens for reinventing professional education (2003). While TH might have been conceptually familiar to educators, using TH to develop disciplinary knowledge and skills was limited. However, we may have reached the tipping point for TH utilization (Theobald & Brazelton, 2020). Thus, needing an innovative approach to education. Rogers’ five main elements of successful innovation outline steps for rethinking curriculum: the relative advantage; compatibility with pre-existing systems; complexity; trialability; and observed effects. Educators could consider these elements when incorporating TH clinical practice for wide adoption and acceptance in professional education.

Approach. To redesign preparation for clinical practice, we applied Backward Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Starting with the end-in-mind, we focused on desired learning outcomes, rather than routine practices. COVID-19 impacted programs across disciplines and efforts to build a community of learners included national organizations. The 4 Ps model for teaching TH outlines key steps: Planning, Preparing, Providing, Performance Management (Rutledge, personal communication, 2020). Five key areas for preparation of health professionals to provide TH services were: Technology; Privacy/HIPAA; Billing and Coding; Clinical care; and Non-technical skills.
Results. Using the SPROUT framework, Telehealth Change Management Recording Tool, we report specifically about how the nursing graduate programs integrated TH in place of clinical practicums. SPROUT is a telehealth research network with the aim of incorporating evaluation of TH programs and information sharing across the network. The TH Change Management Recording Tool outlines data on the program, plan, activities, results, and action plan. We identified strategies for teaching TH to meet acute needs for clinical education.
Significance. In 2020, challenges to developing clinical competence and preparation for practice crossed professions and required educators to innovate learning activities. This presentation will provide an example of what our community can do collectively to prepare faculty for responding to the unexpected and promote change that is fully adopted. Another issue is accommodating the influence of standards and assessing competency when reinventing learning activities. Through a Backwards Design approach, educators can refocus on learning outcomes regardless of existing structure. Then, align activities and assessments to meet desired outcomes. A longer-term goal for educators is preparing practitioners to respond to emerging trends in health care delivery including TH and advocating for positive educational change long term.

Author

• Beverly W. Henry, Northern Illinois University