The Role of Parents’ Mores on Their Intentions to Enroll Their Children in a School-based Telemedicine Program

Abstract

Hospitals providing nurse-run school telemedicine programs can improve children’s access to healthcare services by delivering such services on school premises. Despite this potential, the enrollment in such programs by parents falls short of expectations because of parents’ hesitation to allow their children to receive such telemedicine healthcare services. This study investigates some aspects of the role of parents’ perception of contributing to a good cause (i.e., personal mores), on their intentions to enroll their children in such a telemedicine program. Surveying parents about such a new telemedicine service that is being deployed in their school district shows that parents’ personal mores are associated with increased intentions over and above its expected time-flexibility advantages. Surprisingly, trust-increased intentions were fully mediated by those mores. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, especially the idea that doing good to others may be another reason why people adopt telemedicine, suggesting another reason beyond the utilitarian, rational, and social processes that are portrayed in previous research.