Survey of Occupational Therapy Education in Telehealth

Abstract

Telehealth delivered occupational therapy services are increasing, and students will need to be prepared to safely and ethically deliver telehealth services. Occupational therapy education standards require that students demonstrate knowledge of telehealth and related technology. However, there is a limited discussion in the literature on how programs are preparing students to deliver services via telehealth. This explanatory mixed methods study examined telehealth education in entry-level occupational therapy programs to understand if and how students are learning about telehealth. The quantitative portion involved a survey of 429 occupational therapy programs in the United States. The qualitative part involved four survey respondents in an interview. The low survey response rate (11.89%; N=51) brings into question if programs are comfortable talking about how they are meeting telehealth education standards. Survey respondents reported the use of lecture (98%) and electronic health records (55.1%) as the most frequently cited methods to deliver educational content about telehealth. Half of the programs did not include interactive content for students to apply telehealth knowledge and skills. The least frequently cited content included interaction with robotic arms (2.2%), telemonitoring (20%), provision of services through telehealth (20%), and use of gaming systems (23.9%). Three themes emerged from the interviews: educational activities, telehealth technology, and curriculum planning. Participants discussed a desire to add content and strategies for overcoming barriers to telehealth education such as utilizing existing technology and utilizing resources and experts. Telehealth education is not advancing as quickly as needed for application in practice. Students could benefit from added telehealth learning opportunities to become competent in telehealth service delivery.