Twelve tips for clinical teaching with telemedicine visits

Abstract

Telemedicine is now an established mode of clinical care for most medical specialties, and clinical teachers must teach and precept learners in this modality. However, faculty need training on how best to teach students when caring for patients via telemedicine. Effectively incorporating learners into telemedicine visits to optimize their education is a critical skill for clinical teachers. In this article, we review 12 practical tips unique to telemedicine to engage and educate undergraduate medical education learners in building their clinical skills. We outline synchronous and asynchronous elements before, during, and after the patient encounter to facilitate teaching while improving patient care. These principles can also be adapted for teaching in other health professions as well as postgraduate medical education.

Telehealth Competencies in Medical Education: New Frontiers in Faculty Development and Learner Assessments

“…Case-based discussions and pre-clinic team huddles can help to highlight high-risk patient safety concerns and teach ways to triage patients for in-person or emergency care. 14 , 28 , 31 , 32 Faculty should direct learners to survey the patient environment for safety, identify cases for interdisciplinary collaborative care, and contextualize patient characteristics and disease presentations during virtual care encounters. 32 Similarly, learners may encounter patients with sensitive issues or limited ability to engage in virtual visits.…”

“… 14 , 28 , 31 , 32 Faculty should direct learners to survey the patient environment for safety, identify cases for interdisciplinary collaborative care, and contextualize patient characteristics and disease presentations during virtual care encounters. 32 Similarly, learners may encounter patients with sensitive issues or limited ability to engage in virtual visits. Faculty should encourage learner self-reflection on patient or practice barriers and coach them through potential solutions.…”

“…The Telehealth Mini-Residency for Providers by the VHA National Simulation Center is one such exemplar of an interactive telehealth program for faculty learners. 32 …”

Programa de Teleconsulta Docente: percepciones de profesores y alumnos de una facultad de medicina peruana

“…De hecho, un estudio en Brasil durante la pandemia, encontró que la telemedicina puede contribuir a fomentar la vocación de servicio de los estudiantes de medicina y la práctica de la atención centrada en el paciente [14] ; además las teleconsultas tienen el potencial de aumentar el acceso a la atención para algunos de los pacientes más vulnerables o con limitaciones de movilidad significativas [15] . A nivel mundial, muchas facultades de medicina adoptaron programas de telemedicina para escenarios de enseñanza durante la pandemia COVID-19, sistematizando a experiencia en su entorno social y cultural [16][17][18][19] ; sin embargo, no hemos encontrado en la literatura la descripción de esta experiencia en el escenario de formación médica en Perú. La educación médica en el Perú, durante muchos años, estuvo concentrada en los hospitales y servicios de emergencia y actualmente en el contexto de la COVID 19 existe un cambio hacia el desarrollo de la enseñanza en nuevos escenarios.…”

A proposed learning environment framework for virtual care

“…Actively including the learner in a virtual care visit has been identified as a useful tip in teaching within the virtual space. 22 Program evaluation focusing on these various relationships would help identify deficiencies and create avenues to allow for these relationships to form.…”