Can NP School Prepare You for Telehealth?
Download a five-step telehealth curriculum checklist to ask about supervised practice, simulation, privacy, safety planning, and feedback before choosing a PMHNP program.
Look for a skill you can demonstrate.
AACN’s nursing education competencies include safe use of health technology, including telehealth. Ask the PMHNP program which virtual assessment skills students must demonstrate, where they practice them, and how faculty score the work. An online course format alone does not answer this.
Ask what happens in simulation.
APNA describes simulation and teleprecepting as ways to teach telemental health. Request one example: the case, the learner’s task, the observation or recording method, and the feedback rubric. Ask whether students can repeat the exercise after feedback.
Test the safety and privacy plan.
HHS telebehavioral health guidance calls for a plan that covers the patient’s current location, local emergency numbers, an authorized nearby support contact, and what to do if a crisis call disconnects. HHS also recommends discussing privacy and consent for sensitive visits. Ask students how these steps are practiced and evaluated, not only mentioned in a lecture.
Follow the skill into clinical practice.
Ask whether supervised telebehavioral health encounters are available for your track, where they occur, and who evaluates them. If a placement cannot offer virtual encounters, ask how the program documents competence and what alternative experience is provided. Program policies and local requirements can differ.
Download the telehealth curriculum checklist
Mark each skill as shown, unclear, or missing and save the program’s evidence beside it.
Download the worksheetUse this before you choose.
Give more weight to a program that can show a real virtual-care assignment, observed practice, specific feedback, and a supervised clinical path. If it can only say that telehealth is covered, request a syllabus and evaluation rubric before treating that claim as evidence of preparation.
Make the guide specific to you.
- Skill: Which PMHNP telehealth skills are taught, and where is each skill assessed?
- Simulation: What virtual behavioral health case is practiced, observed, and debriefed?
- Safety: How are privacy, informed consent, patient location, local crisis numbers, authorized support contact, and a disconnected-crisis plan rehearsed?
- Clinical: Can students complete supervised telebehavioral health encounters, who observes and gives feedback, and what alternative assessment exists when they are unavailable?
- Proof: What rubric, example assignment, placement policy, or competency record can the program share?
Copy the message.
Hi [program contact], I am comparing PMHNP programs for [term and state]. Could you share one telebehavioral health learning activity and its assessment rubric? I would also like to know how students practice privacy, informed consent, emergency planning, and disconnections, whether supervised virtual encounters are available, what alternative assessment you use if they are not, and how faculty give feedback or reassess skills. Thank you.
Check the original information.
- APNA: Telemental health educationChecked 2026-10-12
- AACN: Informatics and healthcare technologies competenciesChecked 2026-10-12
- HHS: Creating an emergency plan for telebehavioral healthChecked 2026-10-12
- HHS: Protecting patients’ privacyChecked 2026-10-12
- Corcoran et al.: Scaffolding Telemental Health SkillsChecked 2026-10-12
- HHS: Informed consent for telebehavioral healthChecked 2026-10-12