Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid adoption of telehealth technologies, particularly in terms of treatment delivery and trainee education. Prior work has found that virtual training (in which supervisors and trainees are not co-located and interact via virtual communication platforms) is well-received and supports effective supervisor/ trainee working relationships. However, there is limited assessment of the effectiveness of virtual training in supporting clinical skill development or working relationships. Given the growing adoption of telehealth in health professional education, an evaluation was conducted in collaboration with the Clinical Resource Hubs (CRH), a national telehealth program within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) offering clinical training opportunities within a virtual work environment.
Methods: Survey instruments were developed and administered to CRH trainees and supervisors. Information was collected related to trainee and supervisor demographics, CRH training experiences, perceived quality of training and supervision, supervisor/trainee relationships, and perspectives on virtual training.
Results: Trainees and supervisors perceived virtual supervisor/trainee interactions to be equivalent or superior to in-person interactions in supporting the development of clinical competencies and experienced effective supervisory working relationships in a virtual environment. Trainees and supervisors differed in their preferences for virtual versus in-person training and views on the ideal combination of these modalities to support skill development.
Conclusion: Results suggest that virtual supervisor/trainee interactions can effectively support trainee clinical skill development and effective supervisor/trainee relationships. For many aspects of training, virtual training for health profession trainees within large healthcare settings can provide an effective experience that is an acceptable and viable alternative to in-person training.
Yahya GM, Burgan KW, Kawentel LM, Ragan A, Doran JM, Bowersox NW. A mixed methods evaluation finds virtual training among health professions education trainees and supervisors as effective as in-person training. J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2025;12:23821205251380043. doi:10.1177/23821205251380043.
García Dieguez M. Comment on the Virtual training: Can remote clinical supervision be as effective as in-person supervision?. [Internet]. Pan American Health Organization. Bibliographic Repository. Available at: https://campus.paho.org/en/repo/virtual-training-can-remote-clinical-supervision-be-effective-person-supervision
García Dieguez M.
CEEProS Universidad Nacional del Sur
This article is recommended for leaders of health professions education programs, clinical supervisors, and designers of virtual learning who want to understand which dimensions of supervision can be sustained at a distance. Its value lies in moving beyond platform satisfaction: it compares trainee and supervisor perceptions of competency development and supervisory relationships within a national Veterans Health Administration telehealth program. For continuing education, it shows that virtual supervision can broaden access to experts, clinical settings, and patient populations when it is designed as a pedagogical relationship rather than content delivery.
The mixed methods evaluation used structured surveys and open-ended responses across several professions. Forty-three trainees (37.5% response) and 57 supervisors (74.0%) participated. More than 93% of trainees and 90% of supervisors perceived virtual interactions as contributing to competency development at least as much as in-person interactions. Communication, trust, progressive autonomy, and working relationships were also viewed positively. Virtual training increased access and reduced travel. Yet supervisors more often preferred fully virtual arrangements, whereas trainees favored a balanced mix. Reported limitations included interruptions, communication challenges, reduced informal mentoring, coordination demands, and constraints for physical examination and hands-on skills. The single institutional setting, small samples, nonresponse risk, self-reported outcomes, proxy comparison with in-person experience, and unlinked trainee-supervisor responses mean that the study does not establish objective equivalence or universal applicability.
- Use virtual supervision for case review, clinical reasoning, decision-making, documentation, feedback, and telehealth practice.
- Retain face-to-face sessions for physical examination, procedures, and equipment-dependent skills.
- Schedule explicit mentoring and professional-development time.
- Agree on communication channels, observation procedures, response times, and feedback rules.
- Evaluate access, supervisory relationships, competencies, and outcomes separately.
- Choose hybrid configurations according to profession, competency, autonomy, and setting.