Peer Response-The Need to Educating Healthcare Providers on Telemedicine

Peer Response-The Need to Educating Healthcare Providers on Telemedicine

Thank you for your post. I agree with you. Although telemedicine provides new and great opportunities for the healthcare delivery system, there is a need to focus on approaches to equip the users, especially healthcare providers, with the necessary telemedicine knowledge and skills. The rapid technological advancements and adoption in healthcare have, however, not been met with the necessary healthcare provider education to support the full use of such technologies in healthcare delivery. The largely missing standardized competencies essential for efficient telehealth use among advanced practice nurses (APNs) are critical barriers that may slow the establishment of telemedicine and the transition to telehealth care (Rutledge et al., 2021).

According to a study, most healthcare providers have a basic knowledge of telemedicine (Datta et al., 2021). However, the necessary attitudes and skills for the utilization of telemedicine are still lacking. Therefore, healthcare professionals training need to develop and adopt training programs focusing on telehealth competency-based training in clinical and in-service settings. The training should not only focus on the required technical skills but also on the attitudes and concerns of the healthcare providers towards the use of telemedicine in healthcare. Rutledge et al. (2021) suggest the provision of telehealth competency training programs that align with the Four P’s Telehealth framework, i.e., Planning (for implementation), Preparing (readiness for implementation), Providing (delivery of telehealthcare), and Performance Evaluation (Impact evaluation) will support the development of standardized telehealth competencies. As nurses are the major agents of new innovations and technologies in healthcare, ensuring their competencies in telemedicine is the only way healthcare organizations and the healthcare system will tap into the full potential of such technologies in health delivery.

References

Datta, R., Singh, A., & Mishra, P. (2021). A survey of awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skills of telemedicine among healthcare professionals in India. Medical Journal Armed Forces India. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MJAFI.2021.08.017

Rutledge, C. M., O’Rourke, J., Mason, A. M., Chike-Harris, K., Behnke, L., Melhado, L., Downes, L., & Gustin, T. (2021). Telehealth Competencies for Nursing Education and Practice: The Four P’s of Telehealth. Nurse Educator, 46(5), 300. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000988

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As the healthcare industry is continuously evolving, it is important for hospitals, physicians, and any other healthcare setting to emerge, implement, and be able to use digital technology. Nowadays, much evidence shows information technology’s vital role in healthcare and society.  Most of society does not doubt that medical technology is an important tool for improving healthcare quality.  After reading and understanding the Top Healthcare Industry Trends to Watch in 2018 and Beyond, the trend is that medical technology services for healthcare have never been more vital, especially during and after the COVID pandemic, and healthcare technology development has accelerated. According to The Impact of Healthcare Trends, “there are five common trends to revolutionize the health systems: Telemedicine, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, IoT and wearables and Blockchain (Arnautova, 2018).”The importance of critical thinking, clinical reasoning, clinical judgment, and advanced assessment of the experienced advanced nurse practitioner and other healthcare providers is undeniable.  However, traditional healthcare settings are not enough; utilizing medical technology that supports nursing practice is important, especially in complex healthcare systems.

The Need to Educating Healthcare Providers on Telemedicine

In addition, Advanced nurse practitioners will need to become adept and familiar with Top Healthcare Industry Trends. Advanced practice nurses have several roles to play in the health system, and the above-listed trends impact these roles.

In my discussion, I would like to discuss the benefits of telemedicine and how it is evolving in the nursing industry. Even though telemedicine has been so long in the healthcare setting, many people gained an awareness shift during and after the 2020 pandemic and many people’s perception of remote consultations, increasing acceptance and understanding of the importance of the practice. Due to the shortages of physicians, patients may increasingly see nurse practitioners as a substitute for physicians. This number includes 208,000 nurse practitioners who are board-certified to deliver specialty services and primary care (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2017) with a similar scope of practice as primary care physicians (Bleich, 2011).

I believe Telemedicine has many positive impacts not only on the patients but also on the APNs because it allows practitioners to improve access, cost, and quality of care, slowing the spread of infection, convenience and comfort. On the other hand, telemedicine will have negative impacts on the APN’s role and patients. For instance, insurance coverage, protecting medical data, HIPAA, care delays, and APNs must rely on patient self-reports during telemedicine sessions because APNs are unable to perform physical assessments. However, the positive impact of telemedicine outweighs the negative impact on the healthcare industry; therefore, the Adoption of Healthcare Technology keeps up with the Pace of innovation (Arnautova, 2018).

In conclusion, since Telemedicine & other Healthcare Trends have forever changed healthcare and impacted the healthcare industry, APNS must become empowered with Telemedicine knowledge and hands-on skills to be a creative force for innovations in Telemedicine/Healthcare Trends within practice and healthcare systems.

Reference:

Arnautova, Y. (2018). Top healthcare industry trends to watch in 2018 and beyond. Retrieved August 20, 2018 from https://www.globallogic.com/blogs/top-healthcare-industry-trends-to-watch-in-2018-and-beyond/

Bleich, M. R. (2011). IOM report, The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health: Milestones and challenges in expanding nursing science. Research in Nursing and Health, 34(3), 169-170. doi:10.1002/nur.2043

American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2017). NP fact sheet. Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/all-about-nps/np-fact-sheet