Telehealth is of great importance in today’s healthcare environment. According to ( Reference), health disparity is a big problem in the United States especially among rural dwellers who are unable to access healthcare services. The problem of reduced health care access of fueled by the shortage of healthcare professionals (Reference). The rapid integration of telehealth by health systems helps to address health disparities by increasing health care access to patients, families, and communities in rural areas. With the existence of telehealth, patients can engage their healthcare providers virtually without having to travel to healthcare facilities. Additionally, multidisciplinary teams can share opinions regarding a patient’s case and agree regarding the best interventions to implement to solve a patient’s problems (Reference). Therefore, it is evident that today’s training programs for nurses must incorporate telehealth training to prepare professionals who can provide timely, efficient and patient-centered care to patients.
The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) supports the need for registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses to receive telehealth training. In 2018, the agency recommended that nursing institutions should integrate telehealth education into their curricula (Reference). The relevant competencies that telehealth training is expected to offer include; an understanding of the benefits of telehealth, how to use telehealth to deliver efficient, safe, and patient-centered care, as well as privacy and security issues surrounding the use of telehealth among other facets of the technology (Reference). Notably, professionalism is a key requirement in ensuring that nurses effectively implement telehealth.
Equipping nurse practitioners with telehealth knowledge and skills empowers them to be creative and be able to apply the technology not only to improve patients’ outcomes but also to strengthen health systems. As frontline healthcare workers, nurse practitioners can utilize telehealth to shape and transform the healthcare delivery process (Reference). In this respect, telehealth education programs for nurse practitioners should be designed in such a way that they will prepare the professionals to respond to the challenges that they encounter when delivering patient care and to promote innovation using the technology (Reference). The COVID-19 pandemic has helped health systems to learn how important it is to integrate telehealth.