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Pearson has a growing number of products that may be appropriately used for telepractice under certain conditions.
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Whether you’re familiar with it as telepractice, telehealth, telemedicine, remote testing – the common theme is, our customers want to know how to serve their clients during this time so they can continue to deliver clinical, speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral health, and psychoeducational tools and assessments to students and clients at home.
Telepractice is the application of telecommunications technology to the delivery of professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. Telepractice includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools, and other forms of telecommunications technology.
In short, telepractice allows for continuity of care when in-person sessions are not practical or feasible. Over the past several weeks, the landscape of healthcare has drastically changed. The term “social distancing” has become a part of our vernacular — seemingly overnight — and as a large majority of the world has found a way to comply, there are many, like you, who are searching for ways to provide care to those who need it. Telepractice can help you do just that.
In 2010, the American Telemedicine Association published a sample set of guidelines for telepractice.
Other professional organizations also have developed formal statements or documents relating to telepractice. For example:
For further detail on professional organizations response to COVID-19, please see the following resources:
This may not be the most fun part of the process, but you are responsible for understanding guidelines and requirements from your national professional association (e.g., APA, AOTA, ASHA, NASP, AMA, or educational organization) as well as state laws and regulations for your practice, and for assessment specifically (links can typically be found through your state organizations’ websites).
Consult your national professional organization’s website regarding telepractice. You will be able to find guidelines and considerations for providing ethical and effective telepractice services. Some professional organizations provide links to state licensing board requirements for telepractice, as requirements vary by state.
Take a close look at different teleconferencing services/packages that provide a picture-in-picture display and online tools that enable you to share your screen, use annotation tools, etc.) Confirm that the teleconferencing platform package that your work site is considering for purchase has features that enable you to meet HIPAA and FERPA requirements (e.g., encrypted transmission, secure login/access). Typically, Facebook and Skype are not secure sites for delivering telepractice services and would violate HIPAA and FERPA requirements for secure transmission, however, current events have led many public, private, and governmental organizations to temporarily relax their security guidelines to allow practitioners to continue to serve their clients.
The practitioner is still responsible for:
In general, numerous platform options exist. It’s often possible to have a trial version of a platform before you choose one that best fits your needs.
Pearson Clinical Assessment currently has several global telepractice platform partners that house some of our assessment content on their platforms for research and/or commercial use:
Again, best practice includes checking your professional organization’s website for training information, continuing education, professional resources, and/or participation in special interest groups within the organization.
Before conducting your first assessments, you will need to:
Five Factors: Considerations for a positive assessment administration
There are a few ways you can continue to provide support for your clients/students through telepractice.
1. Q-global — Remote On-Screen Administration (ROSA)
If you are currently using Q-global to score tests you administer using paper protocols, then you first need to determine whether you (or your organization) has purchased Scoring Subscriptions or Score Reports/ Report Usages to accomplish this scoring.
Only Score Reports/ Report Usages allow you to generate score reports for tests that are administered using Remote On-Screen Administration (ROSA). Scoring Subscriptions provide you with scoring ability only for tests which you administer in paper format and manually enter item responses into Q-global. Depending on the type of assessment, you have two options:
Remote On-Screen Administration
2. Q-global – Digital Administration Materials in the Resource Library
The Q-global Resource Library holds a multitude of digital stimulus books, manuals, and additional administration materials for your use in telepractice contexts. To use the stimulus books and other administration materials remotely, refer to the guidance in the “Using Your Digital Assets on Q-global” file in the Resource Library General folder for those products that have digital assets.
3. Q-interactive
If you already have a Q-interactive subscription, you can provide remote administration by following these instructions:
Please note that this scenario requires significant technical skill, additional software, and extensive practice.
Once you’ve completed an assessment:
If you have specific requests or questions for your assessment representative, please complete this form and someone will contact you.
We’re addressing questions from you and your colleagues as they come in. If you don’t see your questions answered, please submit them below.
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