Evaluation of telehealth knowledge, attitudes and experiences of medical faculty students

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and experiences of students in a medical school about telehealth. Method: The data of this descriptive study were collected through face-to-face questionnaire interviews. A total of 603 medical faculty students selected by convenience sampling method were included in the study by completing the survey form completely. Results: 89.1% of the students had no telehealth experience during medical education. The mean score of the telehealth attitude questionnaire of the medical students participating in the study was 46.7 ± 9.4 (9.0-79.0). Attitude questionnaire scores of preclinical students were significantly higher than those of clinical students (p=0.018). The perceived telehealth knowledge level, which was stated by the students on a scale of 1-10, was 1.9 ± 1.4 on average. Conclusion: This study shows that medical students' knowledge about telehealth is insufficient and almost all of the students didn’t experience telehealth during their medical faculty education. It’s thought that students' telehealth attitudes will be an important determinant of their use of telehealth in clinical practice. This study will benefit the educational interventions that can be made to medical students in terms of showing which methods used in the field of telehealth are known.