Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

12-2022

ORCID

ORCID: 0000-0002-6289-7744

Document Type

DNP Project

Department

Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Catherine Garner

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Sandra Cleveland

Abstract

Abstract

With the advent of the COVID-19 public health emergency in the United States, many U.S. veterans were unable to maintain their usual office visits due to safe access concerns. Patients were strongly encouraged to maintain their healthcare needs at home by utilizing online technology resources like telehealth services with their healthcare providers. Providing excellent healthcare services for veterans during COVID-19 became a challenge for primary care providers at many veteran healthcare organizations. Since little was known about the satisfaction of veteran clients with healthcare management using virtual care during the pandemic, this formative program evaluation was designed to survey and assess veteran clients’ satisfaction using a veteran telehealth survey tool. This study found that approximately 88% of participating veterans agreed that telehealth made positive changes in their life, 89% agreed telehealth led to positive health changes, and 90% would recommend telehealth to others. Of these participants, nearly 70% were 60 years and older, with 40% of all participants being 70–79-year-olds, primarily representing an older veteran population. Some 99% of veteran participants perceived improved health management as validating the importance of providing continued telehealth care services. This formative evaluation on telehealth care will serve to provide healthcare leaders with information on improving healthcare using telehealth services, reinforce data of the positively perceived healthcare outcomes, and support a trend of the evolving need for continued healthcare access to the veteran during challenging conditions.

Keywords: veteran, telehealth, COVID-19, primary care providers

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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