Virtual precepting: how telehealth hours work

What counts as a virtual hour

A virtual hour is clinical time the student completes online under your supervision: a telehealth visit they take part in, or structured virtual work their program accepts. The National Task Force standards say direct patient care hours may include care delivered to the patient through telehealth.

Each school decides how many of a student’s hours may be virtual, and the number can differ by course. Preceptorate places a student with you virtually when their school accepts virtual hours for that course, so the hours count toward the student’s program from day one.

Specialties that suit virtual precepting

Virtual precepting fits the specialties where care already happens by video:

• Psychiatric-mental health, where telepsychiatry is part of everyday practice.
• Primary care follow-ups and chronic care visits.
• Counseling, where the program accepts telehealth sessions.
• DNP project mentoring and leadership hours.
• MSN education, leadership and informatics practicums.
• Behavior analysis supervision, in the share the BACB allows to be remote.

Specialties matched in person

Acute care, neonatal, nurse-midwifery and PA students complete their hours in person, where their programs place them, so Preceptorate matches those preceptors in person. Many preceptors precept both ways: an in-person student on their clinic days and a virtual student alongside.

How virtual precepting works with Preceptorate

1. 1We match youWith a student whose school accepts virtual hours for their course.
2. 2You meet onlineA short first call, so you can both see it is a good fit. You decide after it.
3. 3Our team runs the mentorshipThe mentorship sessions with your student are ours.
4. 4You review and sign offYour student logs every hour; you review and sign them off in minutes a week.
5. 5You are paidPer block of hours, at the rate you saw before you accepted, with every payment on record.

The HIPAA basics for video visits

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the HHS Office for Civil Rights relaxed enforcement for telehealth on everyday video apps. That flexibility ended at 11:59 p.m. on May 11, 2023, after which a 90-day transition ran to August 9, 2023. Telehealth with a student present now follows the same HIPAA rules as any other visit, which most practices already have in place.

• Use the HIPAA-compliant video platform your practice already uses, under its business associate agreement.
• Introduce the student, and follow your practice’s consent process.
• Confirm the patient’s location and a callback number at the start of the visit.
• Document the student’s part in the visit and your own supervision.

What a virtual week looks like

Early in the week, the student joins their scheduled telehealth visits or virtual work and logs the hours. Through the week, our team runs the mentorship sessions with the student. At the end of the week, you open the log, review the hours against what happened, and sign them off.

Because the rhythm is predictable, many preceptors fit virtual precepting around a full clinical schedule.

Making the hours count

Two things keep virtual hours valuable to the student: real patient care, and feedback. When a student takes part in a telehealth visit, a short debrief afterwards, using a model like the One-Minute Preceptor, turns the visit into teaching. And when the hours are logged accurately each week, the school’s clinical coordinator sees a clean record at evaluation time.

Getting set up

A virtual rotation needs very little setup:

• Your practice’s HIPAA-compliant video platform, with access for the student.
• An agreed list of the visits or virtual work the student joins.
• A weekly day for reviewing and signing off the student’s hours.
• A channel for quick questions, such as your practice’s secure messaging.

What the school arranges

The school decides how many virtual hours a course accepts, sends its evaluation forms, and keeps in touch through its clinical faculty, often by video for virtual rotations. With Preceptorate, our team confirms the school’s virtual hours before the match, completes the school’s forms and schedules the evaluations, so your part stays focused on the student’s hours.

Why students and schools value virtual hours

Virtual precepting widens the circle of preceptors a student can learn from: a PMHNP student in a rural area can learn from an experienced telepsychiatry practice in another part of their state, and a DNP student can work on a project with a mentor whose expertise matches it. For preceptors, it brings teaching into a schedule that might not have room for an in-person student. That is why virtual hours have become a valued part of many programs, where the school accepts them for the course.

Questions