The Use of Telehealth for Clinical and Laboratory Teaching in Healthcare Professional Education During Covid-19: Findings of a Scoping Review

Abstract

This research aims to map the available evidence on teaching strategies for clinical and laboratory in healthcare professional education during the COVID-19 pandemic and their impacts on students. PubMed, Science Direct, JSTOR, ProQuest, and Springer Nature were searched for relevant articles with queries that combine keywords related to healthcare professional students, clinical learning, laboratory learning and Covid-19. Included studies focused on clinical and laboratory education during the Covid-19 pandemic and their impacts. We excluded reviews or study protocols. The retrieved articles were screened at the title, abstract, and full-text stages. Studies were selected based on relevancy with the inclusion criteria. Findings then were extracted, and the reported based on the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 3237 studies were identified following a comprehensive search, and eight studies were included after removing duplicates and screening. We found several teaching methods utilized during Covid-19 pandemic including blended learning, virtual and online learning, online simulated learning, and the use of telehealth. The learning methods received a mixed response from students, some rated positive responses, and some assumed that this online approach was not enough to support clinical and laboratory learning for health students. The scoping review maps out that majority of used methods are online and virtual clinical and laboratory learning. There is a need for further research designing more quasi-experimental studies to assess the effectiveness of standalone digital education interventions for the remote training of nursing or medical interns to be fully prepared for emergencies.