A comparison of telehealth and face-to-face presentation for school professionals supporting students with chronic illness

Abstract

We compared the perceptions of school professionals who received education about students with chronic illness by videoconference (VC) or by face-to-face (FTF) presentation. Forty-five different one-hour presentations were provided by a paediatric educator to a total of 1389 subjects - 919 viewed FTF presentations and 417 viewed VC presentations. Subjects completed a 10-item survey to assess satisfaction and other perceptions, such as access and convenience of the sessions, on a 5-point Likert scale. The results for the two different modalities were compared using analysis of variance. Participants at the FTF presentations (mean 4.6, SD = 0.6) and VC presentations (mean 4.3, SD = 0.7) indicated that they were very satisfied with the instruction they received. The FTF participants were significantly more satisfied than the VC participants (P < 0.001). Similarly, comfort with the sessions, perceived preparedness, convenience and other items were also highly rated in both groups, although the FTF group rated many of these perceptions significantly higher. Regression analysis showed that the comfort level with the presentations was a predictor of satisfaction, suggesting that people might not be familiar enough with VC sessions to be comfortable and satisfied with this delivery mechanism. Nonetheless, VC delivery appears to be a viable alternative when FTF is not possible, particularly in rural areas.

Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences

“…The cue removal principle may be the primary reason for shortcomings of videoconferencing compared to face-to-face interaction (e.g., Crede and Sneizek 2003;O'Conaill et al 1993;Spaulding et al 2008). Although videoconferencing may be seen as a sufficiently rich media that includes both auditory and visual cues, even in the best of technological cases (full duplex, high resolution video) it is not as satisfactory as face-to-face communication, and sometimes is no different from audio-only communication (Daly-Jones et al 1998), or as Sellen (1995 says ".…”

School reentry services for students with chronic health conditions: An examination of regional practices

“…With telehealth becoming a more common practice, schools might consider the use of videoconferencing or other forms of online training to provide school staff with the requisite information needed to provide more effective supports for students with chronic health conditions. These kinds of trainings offer flexibility for staff, can be more cost effective than face to face training, and have also shown promise with regard to increasing general knowledge about chronic illness (Spaulding et al., ).…”

“…Most school reentry programs designed for students with chronic health problems include some element of educating teachers and other staff about the child's condition (Canter & Roberts, ). This can take many different forms including standalone workshops (Prevatt, Heffer, & Lowe, ), inclusion of presentations within the school's in‐service training schedule (Herrmann, Thurber, Miles, & Gilbert, ), videoconferencing (Spaulding, Davis, & Patterson, ), or more informal methods of sharing information (i.e., in dispelling myths among staff about the child's condition; Worchel‐Prevatt et al., ). Results from past research regarding the outcomes of such staff trainings portray large effect sizes for increasing knowledge and attitudes of teachers about the student's condition (Canter & Roberts, ), which in turn can help to lead to a more positive reentry experience for the student.…”

Videoconferencing at a centre for rare disorders: user satisfaction and user participation

“…Videoconferencing is generally well accepted and seems to be the preferred modality particularly by those who save travel time and costs by using it (5–7). The meetings offered by the Centre represent a special kind of interaction in terms of the sensitive topics and the relatively large number of participants (8).…”

“…A 35‐item questionnaire on user satisfaction and participation was assembled, based on previously used questionnaires in videoconferencing (5,6,9–11). Twelve questions concerning topics such as feelings during the meeting, dialogue and cooperation, attendance and roles of the participants, active involvement (questions, responses, comments), and problem solving and outcomes were used.…”