Family Medicine Resident and Faculty Perceptions About the Strengths and Limitations of Telemedicine Training

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Telemedicine has become a highly-utilized form of primary care, requiring medical schools and residency programs to develop standardized telemedicine training to meet learners’ educational needs. This study highlights specific areas of clinical teaching and faculty development regarded as highly valuable in a family medicine (FM) residency program.  Methods: We developed a needs assessment survey instrument based on Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestones and circulated it to faculty and residents at a suburban FM residency program in August 2020. We mapped each survey question to ACGME core competencies to identify common themes. We performed two-sample t tests to compare perceived self-confidence in faculty assessment and resident performance of key telemedicine clinical skills. Results: A total of 29 respondents (15 faculty, 14 residents) completed the survey. Both residents and faculty expressed comfort with obtaining a focused history, ruling out red flag symptoms, formulating a differential diagnosis, and planning follow-up care. Faculty reported confidence in their ability to provide feedback about medical knowledge and clinical decision making, but also identified a need for better feedback tools. Both faculty and residents identified a need for better teaching of physical exam skills during video visits. There were no statistically significant differences for perceived self-confidence in evaluating and performing key telemedicine skills between faculty and residents, respectively.    Conclusion: Development of effective telemedicine educational experiences should emphasize teaching virtual communication and physical exam skills, and developing new approaches to learner evaluation.