Assessment Tools for Student Telehealth Competency: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Introduction: Telehealth is widely used by health professionals and students to deliver services in various settings. Health students need to acquire telehealth competencies prior to and during placement for safe delivery and competent practice. Therefore, understanding which student telehealth competencies have been assessed following a learning activity and what measures are used to do so in the literature is needed.

Methods: A scoping review was undertaken to identify (1) existing tools that measure telehealth competencies in students undertaking synchronous telehealth learning activities and (2) the telehealth competencies that these tools measure. Relevant electronic databases were searched. Titles and abstracts were independently reviewed by two researchers and included if published between 1995 and 2025, involved synchronous telehealth activities with real or simulated patients, and student telehealth competencies were assessed. Data were extracted and analyzed.

Results: Fifty-seven studies met inclusion criteria, with 82% conducted in the United States. Forty-nine studies (86%) used a case series research design. Students were from 10 health disciplines. Most studies (91%) used video-based telehealth activities. Almost three quarters of studies included simulation activities to facilitate telehealth learning. Outcome measures to evaluate student telehealth competencies were largely developed for individual studies, and most did not have established psychometric properties. Telehealth competencies assessed were in three areas: professional competencies, clinical competencies, and telehealth-specific competencies.

Conclusion: Simulation is a commonly utilized learning activity to develop student telehealth competencies. There is a lack of specifically designed tools to assess student telehealth competencies. Further research is needed to develop robust assessment tools with established psychometric properties.