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This article reviews the use of telehealth technology to provide and support remote learning, and patient and professional health-related education for undergraduate nursing education. In addition, it describes the experience one university has had in piloting its uses in both undergraduate and graduate education.
Key Words: Telehealth, nursing education, health care, clinical simulation, telenursing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased usage of technology - particularly telehealth - to provide patient care. The terms telehealth and telemedicine are used interchangeably. Telemedicine (telehealth) is "the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration" (Health Resources & Services Administration, 2021, para. 3). According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (n.d.), the purpose of telemedicine is to improve health care by allowing two-way communication between the patient and physician or practitioner from a distance. Telehealth is essential in delivering care to those living in rural areas and to underserved populations (Bradford et al., 2016).
The use of telehealth can reduce barriers to health care such as cost, transportation, long wait times at clinics, and disease transmission (Sundstrom et al., 2019). It increases access to care for patients who are unable to leave their homes if they are immunocompromised and/or immobile. Telehealth usage has increased during the COVID-19 because of its ability to decrease face-to-face interaction and potentially limit the spread of infection while providing vital care for patients (Smith et al., 2020; Wosik et al., 2020).
The use of telemonitoring interventions have reduced hospital admissions and mortality associated with heart failure (Hanlon et al., 2017) and chronic disease among older individuals (Guo & Albright, 2018; So & Chung, 2018). People with disabilities and mental health disorders in rural and urban areas have also reported improved quality of health care as a result of telehealth services (Choi et al., 2014; Lindgren et al., 2016). Telehealth in nursing has contributed to efficient, quality services and better health outcomes (Rouleau et al., 2017; Speyer et al., 2018).
The techniques of telehealth are included in several graduate nursing education programs (Knight & Prettyman, 2020; Phillips et al., 2020); however, this is not so often the case in undergraduate nursing education. The lack of systematic...