Piloting a Telehealth Interprofessional Diabetes Clinic During Covid 19: Continuing patient care and student learning

Telehealth Training and Education for Allied Health Professionals: A Scoping Review

Background

With the growing adoption of telehealth in allied health disciplines, establishing clear training and education standards is crucial. This review aims to map the current training and education that has been delivered to support development of telehealth competencies in allied health professionals. This scoping review extends our previous review with an updated search.

Methods

The Population Concept Context framework was used, and the following databases were searched: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychInfo, Cochrane, EMBASE, Web of Science, PEDro, United Kingdom Health Forum, WHO, Health Education England, and all U.K. and Australian Allied Health Profession (AHP) professional bodies.

Results

Out of 1,05,980 articles, 12 met the inclusion criteria. Training and education differed greatly, with no definite pattern in teaching approaches. Three articles used standardized questionnaires for training and education assessment, while the remaining articles used author-designed assessments. Eight articles reported that participants achieved the targeted telehealth competencies, and five reported improved attitudes toward telehealth following training and education. Articles recommended various factors that may improve telehealth training and education outcomes, which included a combination of online and face-to-face methods, interprofessional training, consolidation of their skills through supervised clinical work, and separating video and telehealth competencies.

Discussion

This scoping review represents the first comprehensive exploration of telehealth training and education across allied health disciplines. While articles yielded generally positive outcomes, the absence of standardized methods prompts questions about its efficacy. Research should focus on developing evidence-based curriculums informed by pedagogic practices tailored to allied health needs.

While allied health students prefer face-to-face clinical placement, telehealth can support competency development: results from a mixed-methods study

Introduction

Student clinical placements are a mandatory requirement within most accredited health programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many health settings that had traditionally provided placements cancelled their offerings. Telehealth services however, increased and emerged as an alternative placement setting.

Aim

To compare the learning experiences for allied health students provided by telehealth and face-to-face accredited health placements.

Methods

Health students, from a university clinic between March to December 2020, delivering both face-to-face and telehealth consultations, were invited to complete a telephone survey with 3 demographic questions; and 10-items comparing their telehealth and face-to-face learning experiences. Pearson's chi-squared/Fisher's exact test was used to examine the association between each item and consultation setting. Qualitative survey data was thematically analysed using a descriptive approach.

Results

49 students from 2 universities and 5 disciplines completed the survey. Students rated their face-to-face experiences significantly higher than their telehealth experiences across all items (all p-values <0.01). Across 9 items students reported positive learning experiences in both settings. Students had greater opportunities to work in a multidisciplinary team in a face-to-face setting. Four themes were generated: (1) placements can vary in quality regardless of setting; (2) telehealth can provide valuable learning experiences and support competency development; (3) enablers for telehealth placements and (4) barriers for telehealth placements.

Conclusion

While telehealth can support student learning and competency development, in this study students preferred face-to-face experiences. To optimise telehealth placements consideration needs to be given to barriers and enablers such as technological issues and university curricula preparation.