The impact of a didactic and experiential learning model on health profession students’ knowledge, perceptions, and confidence in the use of telehealth

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Training of health profession students in telehealth is important to ensure proper implementation for healthcare delivery. This prospective study aimed to analyze the effects of didactic and experiential learning on knowledge, confidence, and attitudes of telehealth among health profession students (Survey 1). The perceptions of a mixed model telehealth platform were also considered among these students and community clients (Survey 2). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A quasi-experimental repeated-measure study was conducted on 153 university health profession students in physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and nursing (NR) across the 2020–2021 academic year. Survey 1 was administered to students pre/postdidactic telehealth training and at two sequential points within two semesters of telehealth experiential learning. Survey 2 was distributed among students and a pool of 19 community clients at 4 time points across the experience. Survey data were analyzed using R software. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in telehealth knowledge, confidence, and attitudes among all student disciplines after the didactic module with marginal means ranging 3.313/5–4.318/5 for pretest to posttest 1. Improvement continued through experiential learning with marginal means ranging 4.170/5–4.369/5 in posttest 3. There was also a significant student and client approval of the telehealth platform with a student mean high of 3.962/5 ± 0.527 and client mean high of 4.727/5 ± 0.238. CONCLUSION: A didactic training module combined with experiential learning is effective for health profession students' improvement in perception, knowledge, and attitudes toward telehealth. Health profession students and community clients approve a mixed model telehealth platform.

Telehealth Education in Allied Health Care and Nursing: Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey of Students’ Perceived Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Experience

“…However, health educators have started to recommend or plan to incorporate telehealth into the curriculum [58]. Furthermore, research is being conducted on which telehealth competencies should be implemented in education and with what didactic means [16,31,[59][60][61].…”

“…The students' preference for both interdisciplinary and program-specific courses might be because telehealth is a complex and multidisciplinary field that requires a broad range of knowledge and skills [5,31] but still has profession-specific requirements and applications. Previous research has shown that students benefit from an interprofessional telehealth course [60]. The main reason for preferring electives could be that students want the flexibility to choose courses that align with their specific interests and career goals.…”

Physiotherapy students' attitudes toward the use of telehealth in clinical practice: A cross‐sectional survey

“…Our findings support this notion showing that most students did not receive telehealth education and training during their program, nor did they have opportunities during clinical placements where telehealth was practically applied. Prior training and experiential learning have been shown to enhance students' understanding, perceptions, and attitudes regarding the utilization of telehealth 28 . Therefore, future research should focus on the development and implementation of standardized telehealth education modules in entry‐level physiotherapy curriculum, as well as reevaluating recent graduate physiotherapy students' knowledge, skills, and confidence in telehealth utilization.…”

“…Prior training and experiential learning have been shown to enhance students' understanding, perceptions, and attitudes regarding the utilization of telehealth. 28 Therefore, future research should focus on the development and implementation of standardized telehealth education modules in entry‐level physiotherapy curriculum, as well as reevaluating recent graduate physiotherapy students' knowledge, skills, and confidence in telehealth utilization.…”

“…, perceptions, and attitudes regarding the utilization of telehealth 28. Therefore, future research should focus on the development and implementation of standardized telehealth education modules in entry-level physiotherapy curriculum, as well as reevaluating recent graduate physiotherapy students' knowledge, skills, and confidence in telehealth utilization.For a survey-based cohort study of tertiary students, a response rate above 50% during a period of survey fatigue due to COVID-19 can be considered reasonable 29.…”