Nurse Practitioner Student Perceptions of a Multimodal Telemedicine Clinical Course

Abstract

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Background Telemedicine facilitates access to care that is both efficacious and highly satisfactory to patients. As primary health care providers, nurse practitioners (NPs) need to be educated to deliver health care within various settings. With the rapid expansion of telemedicine, NP educational authorities have charged educators to address essential telemedicine-based competencies. Purpose Innovative approaches to integrating telemedicine competencies into NP curricula have yet to be established in nursing education. Methods Multifocal curricular changes were integrated into an NP clinical course. Students engaged in self-directed learning modules and multiple simulation training sessions and rotated through telemedicine clinical practicums. Results Experiences were perceived as realistic and complementary, learning meaningful, and applicability broad and far-reaching. Telemedicine-focused simulation training sessions were viewed as highly satisfactory, and students were confident in simulation-derived learning. Conclusions Nursing educators should integrate multimodal telemedicine experiences into curricula, addressing multiple learning phases through experientially designed simulation trainings.