Telehealth Competencies Leveled for Continuous Advanced Practice Nurse Development

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a rapid uptake of telehealth utilization, with advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) at the forefront of telehealth care delivery. To advance training of nurse practitioners and support curricular development, essential APRN student competencies in telehealth were developed. Problem: Although telehealth competencies have been developed, little is understood about their evaluation across the curricula. Moving to competency-based nursing education involves leveling broad competencies into subcompetencies, including those for telehealth. Subcompetencies support frequent, multimodal evaluation of student progress across APRN curricula. Approach: Adapting Benner’s Novice to Expert Theory, faculty experts in telehealth and graduate nursing education used an iterative process to develop and level subcompetencies aligned with the Four Ps of Telehealth framework. Outcomes: Telehealth subcompetencies were leveled for preclinical and clinical rotations and for readiness for practice. Conclusions: The leveled subcompetencies, aligned with the Four Ps of Telehealth framework, will support APRN faculty in diverse programs as they implement competency-based education in telehealth.