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A scoping review of telehealth in school-based...
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A scoping review of telehealth in school-based health services: Characteristics of telehealth use

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the use of telehealth by school-based health service providers.Methods: We searched five academic databases, followed by a manual search of the reference lists of included articles. Our inclusion criteria required that articles be peer-reviewed, in English, involve use of telehealth by a health professional, and integrate services into the kindergarten to grade 12 school setting. We published an a priori protocol on Open Science Framework. Two reviewers completed article selection, followed by one reviewer and one verifier completing data extraction. We extracted a description of the articles as well as for whom, what, where, when, why, and how telehealth services were provided.Results: We screened 6585 unique sources and included 70 articles. Articles were primarily empirical (77%), from the United States (67%), and published after 2017 (73%). Telehealth services in schools were most often provided by speech-language pathologists (40%) and psychologists (40%), and were provided to students with a range of health conditions and disabilities. Telehealth services included assessment, intervention, and consultation, and were provided primarily through videoconferencing. Telehealth services were utilized to address staffing shortages, serve rural communities, and to meet COVID-19 restrictions.Conclusions: Given the heterogeneous student population and geographically limited literature, we recommend additional research to determine in what specific situations telehealth can and should be implemented.

Authors

Knobl E; Renahan K; Jiang A; Altaf H; Tandon C; Di Rezze B; Phoenix M; Campbell W

Publication date

August 25, 2024

DOI

10.31219/osf.io/t2chx

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