Date of Award

2021

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Department

Communication

Sponsor

Sarah Parsloe

Committee Member

Anne Stone

Committee Member

Nolan Kline

Abstract

Healthcare providers were placed under considerable strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. To exacerbate matters more, a sudden shift to telehealth became necessary to provide safe provider-patient visits. The increased strain created by the sudden need to implement a telehealth protocol is believed to have decreased workplace satisfaction. This study aims to investigate how the rapid shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare providers’ workplace satisfaction, how virtual visits created challenges and opportunities for provider-patient communication, and how the use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare providers’ capacity to engage in patient-centered communication. For this study, 15 primary healthcare providers were interviewed. Learning a new system and protocols in order to conduct virtual visits, as well as new obstacles that providers never encountered before, created a challenge for providers all over. A year after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, telehealth has demonstrated the benefits of permanently incorporating it as a tool for providers to utilize in the future of medicine.

Rights Holder

Sabrina Webb

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