With the arrival of the pandemic, more healthcare professionals nationwide turned to telehealth or telemedicine to remain engaged with their patients. Telehealth connects patients to vital healthcare services through videoconferencing, remote monitoring, electronic consults and wireless communications. These “virtual” visits have significantly increased in popularity due in large part to the many benefits they provide – most notably – reducing everyone’s exposure to COVID-19.
In response to this “virtual” healthcare boom, Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing has launched a new telehealth certification course that provides the essential knowledge to deliver skilled telehealth services with competence and care. The 20-hour, fully online course addresses telehealth platforms and models for practice; evidence-based telehealth technology; quality improvement measures; regulation, policy and reimbursement; telehealth inter-professional practice and specialized populations; and telehealth and the future.
For the program, experts will focus on topics related to health equity, improving access, health disparities, and inter-professional practice with specific populations in relationship to the application and implementation of various telehealth platforms. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with each other as well as experts in the translation of telehealth technology into practice.
“The pandemic has changed the means by which health professionals communicate with their patients, which is why we developed this telehealth certification course,” said Tamara Love, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, assistant professor, FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. “We want to ensure that clinicians are effectively prepared. This program will provide them with the tools and knowledge they need when communicating virtually so that all patients receive the compassionate care they are seeking and moreover, to preserve the ‘human touch’ during these challenging times.”
