Telehealth Education in Allied Health Care and Nursing: Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey of Student’s Perceived Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Experience (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing relevance of telehealth in health care. Assessing health care and nursing students’ telehealth competencies is crucial for its successful integration into education and practice. OBJECTIVE We aimed to assess students’ perceived telehealth knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences. In addition, we aimed to examine students’ preferences for telehealth content and teaching methods within their curricula. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional web-based study in May 2022. A project-specific questionnaire, developed and refined through iterative feedback and face-validity testing, addressed topics such as demographics, personal perceptions, and professional experience with telehealth and solicited input on potential telehealth course content. Statistical analyses were conducted on surveys with at least a 50% completion rate, including descriptive statistics of categorical variables, graphical representation of results, and Kruskal Wallis tests for central tendencies in subgroup analyses. RESULTS A total of 261 students from 7 bachelor’s and 4 master’s health care and nursing programs participated in the study. Most students expressed interest in telehealth (180/261, 69% very or rather interested) and recognized its importance in their education (215/261, 82.4% very or rather important). However, most participants reported limited knowledge of telehealth applications concerning their profession (only 7/261, 2.7% stated profound knowledge) and limited active telehealth experience with various telehealth applications (between 18/261, 6.9% and 63/261, 24.1%). Statistically significant differences were found between study programs regarding telehealth interest (<i>P</i>=.005), knowledge (<i>P</i><.001), perceived importance in education (<i>P</i><.001), and perceived relevance after the pandemic (<i>P</i>=.004). Practical training with devices, software, and apps and telehealth case examples with various patient groups were perceived as most important for integration in future curricula. Most students preferred both interdisciplinary and program-specific courses. CONCLUSIONS This study emphasizes the need to integrate telehealth into health care education curricula, as students state positive telehealth attitudes but seem to be not adequately prepared for its implementation. To optimally prepare future health professionals for the increasing role of telehealth in practice, the results of this study can be considered when designing telehealth curricula.