Medical & Nursing Students

MEDICAL & NURSING STUDENT COURSES

Preparing the next generation of clinicians

To prepare our future medical professionals to utilize telehealth accurately and efficiently, medical schools and teaching hospitals are implementing telemedicine into their curriculum. The range of telehealth education options for students in medical schools varies from required courses to optional electives. Based on American Academy of Medical Colleges (AAMC) data, in the 2017-2018 school year, 88 medical schools (about 60%) included telemedicine as either a required course or an elective option.

To utilize telehealth, students must first understand the privacy requirements and learn to explain the efficacy of telehealth to patients. Gathering patient medical history is critical to providing comprehensive care, and thus clinicians must understand how to comfort patients concerned with the privacy of their medical history. Ethical issues involving patient information and privacy are paramount for all telehealth programs are required to clearly address this topic.

In these programs, students utilize telehealth to learn its capabilities – specifically with regards to virtual examinations. The ability to read a patient’s physical appearance and body language cues during virtual visits is an increasingly important skill for clinicians to possess. Telehealth courses provide students the opportunity to shadow physicians via video conferencing to learn telehealth terminology and communication skills.