Implementing Telehealth Clinical Make-Up Experiences in Prelicensure Nursing Education

Background: Telehealth has become an increasingly important component of health care delivery, creating a need for nursing programs to prepare students for technology-enabled practice environments. Problem: Identifying meaningful clinical make-up experiences for students who miss scheduled clinical days can be challenging. Traditional alternatives may lack authentic patient interaction and specialty-specific learning opportunities. Approach: A provider-precepted telehealth clinical make-up experience was implemented for undergraduate nursing students unable to attend scheduled clinical rotations. Students participated in synchronous telehealth encounters aligned with their specialty clinical courses, including pediatrics, obstetrics, psychiatric-mental health, and community health nursing. Student perceptions were evaluated using postexperience surveys and narrative reflections. Outcomes: Seventy-one undergraduate nursing students completed 80 specialty-aligned telehealth clinical make-up experiences. Sixty-two students completed a voluntary postexperience survey. Student feedback described positive experiences with telehealth learning, virtual patient care, and the overall educational experience. Conclusions: Specialty-aligned telehealth clinical make-up experiences offer a flexible strategy for supporting continuity of clinical education while exposing students to technology-enabled models of patient care.