Keywords

curriculum, nursing education, nurse practitioners, simulation, telemedicine

 

Authors

  1. Burt, Leah PhD, APRN, ANP-BC
  2. Kilroy, Sue PhD, RN

Abstract

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.