The use of telemedicine in clinical care has grown significantly in the last few years and has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that many physicians will be expected to deliver virtual care moving forward, it is important for medical students to gain exposure via this modality during their clinical training. Many medical schools are actively working to integrate students into telemedicine. This article aims to provide guidance for readers incorporating medical students in telemedicine visits at an institutional or departmental level. This article covers essential topics such as coordinating key stakeholders, conducting needs assessments, addressing technological or software considerations, and creating appropriate workflows for students and physicians.
Introduction
Postgraduate trainees address outpatient telephone calls (OTCs) with little prior training. This study determines the skills necessary for OTCs and examines whether a video intervention improves medical students’ performance on simulated OTCs.
Materials and Methods
We utilized a Delphi technique to determine skills needed for OTCs and created a 9-min video teaching these skills. Senior medical students were randomized to Intervention (viewed video) and Control (did not view video) groups. Students were assessed pre-/post-intervention on simulated OTCs. The primary outcome was the between-group difference in improvement.
Results
The Delphi yielded 34 important skills with the highest focus on communication (
n
= 13) and triage (
n
= 6). Seventy-two students completed assessments (Control,
n
= 41; Intervention,
n
= 31). The score (mean ± SD) improved 4.3% in the Control group (62.3 ± 14.3% to 66.6 ± 25.0%) and 12.2% in the Intervention group (60.7 ± 15.2% to 72.9 ± 20.4%,
p
= 0.15). The effect size measured by Cohen’s
d
was 0.55, considered effective (> 0.33) for an educational intervention.
Conclusions
This project fills a gap in OTC training. The use of the Delphi technique, intervention development based on the results, and evaluation of efficacy is a process that could be reproduced for other educational gaps.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01331-w.
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