Preparing the workforce for telehealth practice: a scoping review

This review was undertaken with the aim of locating and mapping telehealth or virtual care curricula or competencies for health professionals in training or practice. The design followed the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and conforms with the requirements of the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. Data sources included Medline (Ovid), Emcare (Ovid), Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL), ERIC (EBSCO) and Scopus plus grey literature databases, customized Google searching, targeted websites, and consultation with content experts in June 2024-Jan 2025. The team members worked independently to extract data. Content analysis was used to map the data, with the use of a data extraction table developed by the review team for the purpose of preparing, organising, and reporting identified evidence. Team meetings were used to collate analysis and facilitated consensus regarding the creation of categories and subsequent themes. The search identified 3,189 peer-reviewed works and 7 grey literature items. After screening 31 publications met criteria for inclusion. Analys of included evidence indicated that telehealth services are safe, effective and increase health service access if delivered by appropriately qualified personnel but competence in face-to-face care provision does not automatically transfer to competency in virtual delivery. The search identified a series of competencies pertinent to telehealth-based clinical encounters, including the call management competencies to prepare for a consult; communicate with clients; conduct the consult; and close. The findings provide information in respect to telehealth essential inclusions in undergraduate nursing curricula and nursing professional development programs. The literature demonstrates a slow uptake in embedding new practice models in education programs for the future health and nursing workforce. A need exists to confirm the competency requirements for telehealth delivery and accelerate related content into nursing and health workforce curricula and professional development activities.