Investigating the Educational Needs of Nurses in Telepractice: A Descriptive Exploratory Study

Abstract

Although some nursing bodies have recognized nursing telepractice as a specialty, with its own knowledge, skills, and attitudes, there is little documented evidence of the education- al needs of Canadian nurses working in tele- health. However, now that telehealth has been recognized as a partial solution to Canada’s health-care challenges, the area requires our attention as educators. This article is based on a study that explored the educational needs of 138 telehealth nurses practising across Canada; participants included nurses from most of the provinces and territories. The nurses were asked to complete a series of open-ended questions related to their educational needs and practice, and the data were analyzed using the methods of Miles and Huberman (1994). The study findings are discussed in the context of continuing education.

Hospital Nurses' Self-Reported Confidence in Their Telehealth Competencies

“…This study adds to that literature, as it not only measured nurses' confidence in operating a certain IT device, but subsequently whether they felt able to integrate this device into health care, for example, through the skill "able to create a confidential environment and a pleasant atmosphere in video conferencing. " Carter, Hudyma, and Horrigan (2010) explored the educational needs in telepractice (i.e., the delivery of care provided via information and communication technologies) of nurses in Canada and mentioned that providers of telehealth education programs could include colleges, universities, nursing associations, telehealth organizations, or hospitals. For hospitals, the results of this study can be used as a starting point in the development of continuing education programs by considering which KSAs were scored as moderate or low (further discussed in the section Implications for Continuing Education).…”

The perspectives of South African academics within the disciplines of health sciences regarding telehealth and its potential inclusion in student training

“…It can be used to alleviate the shortage of healthcare practitioners; improve access to specialist physicians; reduce the costs of accessing healthcare services by reducing the need to travel for consultation; and provide support to rural general practitioners and community service therapists, thereby improving retention in rural communities. [2][3][4][5][6] One of the suggested strategies to promote telehealth at a national level within developing countries is to introduce telehealth into the education and training programmes of healthcare professionals, both undergraduate and postgraduate, so that they are aware of, and can use, telehealth methods to provide healthcare to their patients. [7] The benefits associated with telehealth provide impetus for student and professional training across the healthcare disciplines.…”

“…A review of the literature identified key knowledge areas required for effective telehealth practice that should be included in a telehealth course: computer competence and literacy; [3,25,26] understanding of ethical and legal issues; [25][26][27][28][29] understanding of the protocols and standards that guide good practice; [30] and data management, specifically relating to online transmission, retrieval and storage of data. [29] It is important to put these issues into the SA context in view of current healthcare constraints, service delivery issues and the infrastructure requirements of a telehealth service.…”

Preparing for Organizational Change in Home Health Care With Simulation-Based Training

“…The main purpose of these meetings was to share and discuss focus group findings from the earlier training needs analysis (Guise, Husebø, Storm, Moltu, & Wiig, 2016;Guise & Wiig, unpublished results), in the aid of enabling initial decision-making on training objectives relevant to each organization. In addition, discussions on training objectives were informed by broad literature recommendations on the knowledge, skills, and competencies required for sound provision of telecare services such as virtual visits (e.g., Basu et al, 2010;Brewster et al, 2014;Carter, Horrigan, & Hudyma, 2010;Pellegrino & Kobb, 2005;Sevean, Dampier, Spadoni, Strickland, & Pilatzke, 2008). Furthermore, findings from systematic reviews on the safety and quality of telecare services (Guise et al, 2014) and common clinical uses for virtual visits also contributed knowledge to these discussions.…”